ILLEGAL migrants crossing the Channel in small boats will be handed a one-way ticket to Rwanda and told they cannot come back, Boris Johnson has vowed.
Thousands would be flown 4,000 miles to the small African nation within months as part of a radical plan to take back control of Britain’s borders, the Prime Minister said yesterday.
Once in the capital Kigali, they will be able to apply for asylum, getting free accommodation for about three months while their fate is decided.
But they will not be able to apply for refugee status in the UK to try to deter others from trying to make the perilous journey from France.
The Home Office will backdate the £120million pilot scheme, so those who have already arrived could be sent packing within weeks.
Mr Johnson revealed the immigration shake-up as the number of migrants landing on British shores this year soared past 5,000.
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As he was speaking in Lydd, Kent, another 450 were hauled ashore just miles away by Border Force officials.
Plans are also in place for a new processing centre at an ex-RAF base at Linton-on-Ouse, North Yorks, rather than councils using hotels costing taxpayers millions of pounds.
Mr Johnson has ordered the Navy to patrol the Channel. And councils in England, Wales and Scotland will be given extra cash to help spread the costs of housing asylum-seekers.
The PM accused “queue-jumping” economic migrants of blocking genuine refugees coming to Britain.
He said: “It is particularly perverse as those attempting crossings are not directly fleeing imminent peril, as is the intended purpose of our asylum system.”
He admitted the number of migrants trying to get to Britain by boat would soar this summer. Last year more than 28,000 arrived.
But Mr Johnson stressed that the radical deal with Rwanda was not a magic bullet and would take a while to come fully and properly into effect. He admitted: “To say we’re going to get down to zero anytime soon is unlikely.”
He hit out at critics who claimed Rwanda’s poor human rights record made it unsuitable for the scheme.
‘One of the safest countries in the world’
Mr Johnson said: “This is not something we’ve put together overnight This has been nine months in preparation. Rwanda is one of the safest countries in the world, globally recognised for its record of welcoming migrants.”
Yesterday in Kigali, Home Secretary Priti Patel signed a five-year-deal with Rwanda’s foreign minister. She said: “We can’t stop the boats today or tomorrow. It will take time.”
Under the scheme migrants will have their biometrics taken at a new facility in Manston, Kent. Officials will work out whether they could have a genuine asylum claim or should be sent to Rwanda.
Families will not be separated so it will probably affect just lone men. Britain will also help provide up to five years of training, accommodation and healthcare so migrants can resettle in Rwanda.
The agreement also says Britain will resettle “a portion of Rwanda’s most vulnerable refugees”.
Yesterday, Tory MPs backed the plan. Tom Hunt said that it sent a clear message that migrants should not come. Backbencher Lee Anderson added: “We promised to protect our borders from illegal migrants. This does just that.”
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But Steve Valdez-Symonds, of Amnesty International UK, called the move “the very height of irresponsibility”.
And Enver Solomon, of the Refugee Council, said treating people as human cargo was “cruel and inhumane”.
