Priti Patel will sign a deal with the African country on Thursday, after failing to reach an agreement for a similar deal in Albania and Ghana.
In a speech due to be delivered in Kent on Thursday, Mr Johnson will claim to be ‘taking back control of illegal immigration’ and preventing ‘vile smugglers’ from turning the sea into a ‘watery graveyard’.
It is hoped that the agreement will reduce the record number of people crossing the English Channel, as more than 5,000 have already done so this year.
The Prime Minister is expected to say in his speech: “I accept that these people – whether they are 600 or a thousand – are looking for a better life, the opportunities that the UK offers and the hope of a new beginning.
“But it is those dreams, those hopes that have been exploited.
“These dastardly smugglers abuse the vulnerable and turn the English Channel into a watery graveyard with men, women and children drowning in broken boats and suffocating in refrigerated trucks.”
Speaking on Newsnight on Wednesday, former UK Border Force chief Tony Smith shared his reaction to the proposal.
He said: “We have to find a way to stop the boats because the numbers are increasing, more and more people are going to drown.
“This is the worst part of human trafficking, and I’m afraid that if we don’t stop the boats, more will continue to arrive and more people will lose their lives.
“We have to kind of break that supply chain.”
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Under the terms of the arrangement, the armed forces will be granted the power to track and intercept boats, a task previously carried out by the UK Border Force.
There are also plans to hold asylum seekers in ‘closed’ reception centers in the UK, with the first likely to open at the former RAF station in Linton-on-Ouse, North Yorkshire, reported the Times.
However, the move has been met with widespread backlash over its potential costs, as Australia’s offshore treatment system costs $1bn (£762.3m) a year for just 300 people.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: ‘This proposed treatment in Rwanda is a desperate and shameful announcement by Boris Johnson to distract from his own breaking of the law.
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“It is an unworkable, unethical and exorbitant policy that would cost British taxpayers billions of pounds during a cost of living crisis.”
Refugee Council chief executive Enver Solomon claimed the plan would cost £1.4billion a year and asked Priti Patel to ‘immediately rethink’ the solution.
He added, “We are appalled by the government’s cruel and wicked decision to send those seeking refuge in our country to Rwanda.
“Every day we hear the stories of desperate Ukrainian families fleeing war.
“This is the brutal reality facing refugees fleeing conflict around the world, whom this government now wants to treat as nothing more than human cargo to be shipped elsewhere.”
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Source: www.express.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-04-14 01:24:59
