Rwanda’s state airline rejected UK proposal to fly asylum seekers
Rwanda’s state airline turned down a proposal to transport UK asylum seekers to Kigali under Rishi Sunak’s offshore deportation scheme.
Sources confirmed that RwandAir declined the Government’s request late last year after being approached about running removal flights to Rwanda.
Sources would not say why the request was refused, but The Financial Times quoted a Home Office insider, who claimed it was because of the potential damage to their brand.
The rejection is a further embarrassment for the Government as it seeks to get the first flights off to Rwanda this spring following a two-year delay after the first deportations were halted by the European Court of Human Rights.
The Government is seeking to drive a new Rwanda Bill through Parliament next week in an attempt to finally get the flights off the ground after it suffered a succession of defeats in the House of Lords.
Mr Sunak met Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, in Downing Street on Tuesday with both leaders said to be “looking forward to flights departing to Rwanda in the spring”.
The Home Office has refused to confirm or deny whether it has an airline in place to fly migrants to Rwanda, but a spokesman said on Wednesday: “We have robust operational plans in place to get flights off the ground to Rwanda in spring.”
Home Office documents, seen by The Telegraph, show that the threat from protesters and the lack of contractors are two of the key practical problems identified by officials in securing flights to Rwanda.
An aviation company that supplies air tankers to the RAF is being targeted by a charity over its potential role in flying illegal migrants to Rwanda.
Freedom from Torture is urging its members to “turn up the heat” on AirTanker over claims that it could provide passenger jets to deport migrants to Rwanda.
AirTanker has a 27-year contract with the Ministry of Defence to deliver and support 14 multi-role air tanker planes, which sustain the RAF’s Voyager aircraft, a variant of the Airbus A330-200.
‘Attrition’ through the legal process
Internal Home Office documents show that officials have identified “several critical risks” that could delay the first deportation flights.
One risk would be officials failing to locate and detain sufficient numbers of migrants – some of whom might abscond – combined with “significant attrition” through the legal process that could mean there were “few/none” migrants available for a flight to Rwanda.
The second risk was identified as the logistics of removing migrants from immigration removal centres to the airfield, through protests by asylum campaigners, terrible weather, or commercial airlines or escort providers being unwilling to deliver their contracted services.
The third risk was Rwanda not being ready for arrivals, including not having the out-of-country judicial review facilities for legal aid, leading to legal challenges that could result in migrants having to be returned to the UK.
