UK Prime minister has the knowledge of asylum seekers the Government hopes to send to Rwanda by the end of next year but back down to tell their numbers.
The PM gave little away about when the scheme might get up-and-running in a quizzing by the House of Commons’ Liaison Committee – a ‘supergroup’ of other parliamentary committees.
He declined to comment on suggestions from Rwandan officials that they have capacity to receive 200 asylum seekers from Britain.
Rishi Sinal welcomed this week’s High Court ruling that the £120million deportation scheme is lawful. But he admitted the Government is expecting further legal challenges to the plan.
‘We expect further legal challenge. We will continue to pursue that as necessary,’ Mr Sunak told the group of senior MPs.
‘WE haven’t commented on what is a commercial contract and rightly so.
‘BUT what we’re keen to do is have a system which we move to where, if someone comes here illegally, they don’t have the right to stay and we have the right to remove them.
‘RWANDA is part of that, as will new legislation be and I welcome the fact the court recognised the policy is lawful.’
Mr Sunak confirmed the Government had paid Rwanda an extra £20million on top of the £120million that was initially agreed as part of the ‘migration and economic development partnership’ signed in April.
Asked whether more taxpayers’ cash could be sent to Kigali as part of the stalled scheme, Mr Sunak added: ‘There’s nothing else that we’ve said publicly or will in a commercial contract.’
The PM also insisted the Rwanda plan was an ‘important part’ of the Government’s efforts to tackle the Channel migrants crisis.
When asked about recent comments by Matthew Rycroft, the Home Office’s top civil servant, that there is still no evidence the scheme would prove value for money, Mr Sunak said:Â
‘I believe the Rwanda scheme represents an important part of our plan to tackle illegal migration and stop small boats.
‘It is not the only part of it but it is an important part of it. That is why I welcome the court decision yesterday.’
Following the High Court’s ruling that the scheme did not breach human rights laws, Ms Patel called on the Government to push forward with the asylum shake-up.
As the architect of the Rwanda plan from her time in the Home Office, the former Cabinet minister also delivered a stinging attack on those who have launched legal challenges against it.
She hit out at the ‘usual left-wing activists, lawyers and MPs’ who ‘have sought to do everything they can to block’ the sending of migrants to Africa.
Ms Patel claimed their action in delaying the implementation of the Rwanda scheme had ‘put more lives at risk’ as migrants continue to make perilous journeys across the Channel.
And she claimed they had given ‘succour’ to the ‘evil’ people-smuggling gangs who ‘facilitate this trade in human misery’.
After the High Court ruling on Monday, Ms Patel [as the architect of the Rwanda plan from her time in the Home Office], has called on ministers to act swiftly to implement the Rwanda scheme.
She wrote in The Sun: ‘When I signed the partnership I knew we would need to be prepared for legal challenges and I would like to thank the Government’s legal team for strongly defending the position.
‘I also put in place the resources so the partnership could be implemented, and the Government must now move at pace to ensure asylum claims start being processed in Rwanda, as the High Court has confirmed we can do.
‘Ministers must also take action to stop the European Court of Human Rights meddling in our border controls and be firmer with the EU to stop the waves of illegal migrants crossing the Continent to attempt to cross the Channel.’
In her blast at those who had tried to block the Rwanda scheme, Ms Patel suggested critics had ‘never offered any solutions’ to the Channel migrant crisis but ‘just attacks’.
‘The usual left-wing activists, lawyers and MPs talked down this partnership and they have sought to do everything they can to block it,’ she added.
‘All they have done is delay the implementation of a vital measure to tackle this serious problem.
‘They continue to criticise those of us committed to facing this challenge and I’m sure we will see more legal challenges.
‘But the consequences of their actions are to put more lives at risk and give succour to the evil criminals who facilitate this trade in human misery.
‘Those who enter the UK illegally are also at risk of being exploited, which is another reason why we need to act,’ she said.
