Rishi Sunak meets Rwanda President Paul Kagame amid migrant flat sale row

The Prime Minister met the Rwandan president on Tuesday amid reports that more than 100 properties earmarked for migrants deported from Britain tp the African nation have been sold.

Paul Kagame joined Rishi Sunak in Downing Street as his country marks 30 years since the Rwanda genocide that killed around 800,000 people.

The visit comes as the Government wrestles with delays to the asylum seeker deportation scheme, first announced back in April 2022.

Of the 163 affordable homes on the Bwiza Riverside estate that were reserved to house migrants who came to Britain illegally, 70 per cent have been sold, The Times reported.

Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman said construction work was “progressing steadily” when she visited Rwandan capital Kigali this time last year. But the UK’s deportation plan has been stalled by repeated legal challenges.

Ms Braverman told LBC: “I’m disappointed to read that expectations have fallen and that the Rwandans are now selling off some of those properties, because the way the plan should work is that we need to have a large number of flights going to Rwanda on a regular basis, with a large number of passengers on them.

“The only way we generate a deterrent effect to stop people getting on the boats and coming to the UK illegally is regular flights with hundreds of passengers on those flights being sent to Rwanda on a regular basis. I’m afraid the plan, as it stands today, won’t deliver that.”

The Rwandan government disputed the precise proportion of properties that had been sold privately and insisted the Bwiza estate was one of several places that would used for migrants.

Mr Sunak has said he is confident that deportation flights will begin this spring.

A Downing Street spokesman said: “The Prime Minister reflected on the thirty-year anniversary of the genocide against the Tutsi people in Rwanda, noting the importance of this time of remembrance and that it is a reminder of just how far Rwanda has come.

“President Kagame thanked the Prime Minister for the UK’s continued support.

“They discussed regional security and the deteriorating conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The Prime Minister underlined the importance of a political process to resolve the situation.

“The leaders also discussed the pioneering UK and Rwanda Migration and Economic Development Partnership which will break the business model of criminal gangs risking lives at sea, and the Prime Minister updated President Kagame on the next stages of the legislation in Parliament.

“Both leaders looked forward to flights departing to Rwanda in the spring.”