On Tuesday evening a failed asylum seeker was sent to Rwanda on a voluntary scheme and a Cabinet Minister has said this shows it is a safe country.
According to the PA news agency, the unnamed man was offered up to £3,000 in financial aid and was put on a commercial flight.
Kemi Badenoch the Business and Trade Secretary said that the man be paid up to £3,000 should be “trumpeted,” and told Times Radio, “One of the big arguments about this scheme was Rwanda wasn’t a safe country, and actually people are volunteering to go there.”
Stopping the boats is one of the Prime Minister’s five pledges to remove asylum seekers to be sent to Rwanda.
A Government spokesperson said, “We are now able to send asylum seekers to Rwanda under our migration and economic development partnership.
“This deal allows people with no immigration status in the UK to be relocated to a safe third country where they will be supported to rebuild their lives.”
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, claimed the man’s removal to Rwanda shows “the Tories are so desperate to get any flight off to Rwanda before the local elections that they have now just paid someone to go”.
Cooper added, “British taxpayers aren’t just forking out £3,000 for a volunteer to board a plane, they are also paying Rwanda to provide him with free board and lodgings for the next five years.
“This extortionate pre-election gimmick is likely to be costing on average £2 million per person.”
The Liberal Democrats home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said, “This is cynical nonsense from a Conservative Party that is about to take a drubbing at the local elections.
“Paying someone to go to Rwanda highlights just how much of a gimmick and farce their plan is.”
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