UK may not send migrants to Rwanda 'for months' as Channel crossings hit 7,000

Officials are not planning to wait for court challenges to be resolved before introducing the plan

Migrants are taken to Dover, in England, on a Border Force vessel after being rescued from the Channel on May 2. PA

UK flights sending migrants to Rwanda may not take place for months, Downing Street said, as the number of people crossing the Channel so far this year hit more than 7,000.

Downing Street was unable to say when the first flights sending migrants on a one-way trip to the East African nation would take off, as criticism and legal action against the plans continue.

But officials insisted they were not waiting for court challenges to be resolved before putting the policy into practice.

Analysis of government figures by PA shows 7,240 people have reached the UK after crossing the busy English Channel shipping lanes from France in small boats since the start of 2022.

Crossings continued on Tuesday with young children among those being taken ashore.

This month, Home Secretary Priti Patel signed what she described as a “world-first” agreement with Rwanda, which will see it receive asylum seekers deemed by the UK to have arrived “illegally” and therefore inadmissible under new immigration rules.

But the deal is already subject to legal challenges.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s official spokesman said the flights would take place at the “earliest opportunity”, and that the plan was a “fully legally secure approach that has been tested and thought through”.

“We have received pre-action correspondence from a number of legal firms," the spokesman said. "I can’t get into that more … but we still maintain our hope to have the first flights take place in a matter of months.”

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  British Home Secretary Priti Patel has challenged opponents of her plan to send migrants to Rwanda to come up with a better idea to tackle small-boat crossings in the Channel. PA

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  A rescuer carries a child as migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, after a small-boat incident in the English Channel. PA

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  Under the new proposals, asylum seekers who try to enter the UK through the English Channel route from France will be flown to Rwanda in Africa on a one-way ticket. PA

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  A migrant found at sea while attempting to cross the English Channel boards a bus to be taken for processing in Dover. AFP

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  A border force officer parks a dingy used to carry migrants at Dover Port. Getty Images

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  The number of migrants who have reached the UK by crossing the English Channel has topped 6,000 so far this year, official figures showed. Getty Images

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  British navy ship 'HMS Tyne' on patrol in the English Channel off the coast of Dover. PA

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  A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, on board a Border Force vessel. PA

Refugee charities claim the Rwanda policy has done little to deter people from making the journey across the Channel, with 1,972 people arriving between April 14 – when the government announced and signed the Rwanda deal – and May 2.

More than 500 people arrived in Kent over two days this weekend, after an 11-day stretch between April 20 and April 30 without any arrivals during bad weather conditions.

When asked if Mr Johnson was disappointed that the plan was yet to curb crossing numbers, the spokesman said: “It’s too early to judge what the situation will be long term on this policy.”

The total for this year so far is more than three times the number recorded for the same period in 2021 (2,390) and more than seven times the amount recorded at this point in 2020 (1,006).

Overall, 28,526 people made the crossing in 2021, compared with 8,466 in 2020, 1,843 in 2019 and 299 in 2018, Home Office figures show.

Despite the increasing numbers, the UK’s small boat arrivals are a fraction of the number of people arriving in Europe.

Data from the UN’s refugee agency shows at least 120,441 people arrived in Europe by land and sea in 2021.

“Ministers have made the entirely reckless political calculation that they would rather be taken to court over their scandalous approach to refugees than put in place policies and practices that actually assist people fleeing conflict and persecution, and diminish their vulnerability to exploitation and smugglers,” said Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK’s refugee and migrant rights director.