Migrants to be held for Rwanda flights when they arrive for meetings at UK Immigration Service offices
MIGRANTS are to be held for Rwanda flights when they arrive for meetings at UK Immigration Service offices.
Asylum seekers will be detained in surprise swoops to await deportation flights, it was reported today.
A Home Office spokesman tonight admitted people would be held “at some stage” but declined to comment further on its “operational activity”.
It comes after MPs last week sanctioned migrant deportation flights to the African nation.
Ministers say 2,200 detention centre spaces are available, along with 25 courts and 150 judges for deportation appeals.
PM Rishi Sunak insisted today that the Rwanda plan was already deterring Channel migrants — with some fleeing to Ireland across the Northern Ireland border over fears they will be sent to Rwanda.
Ireland was today drawing up its own emergency legislation to return them to the UK.
Irish premier Simon Harris told Whitehall: “This country will not in any way, shape or form provide a loophole for anybody else’s migration challenges.”
Ireland’s Justice Minister Helen McEntee is expected to discuss the issue tomorrow with Home Secretary James Cleverly.
A UK government source, however, said: “We won’t accept any asylum returns from the EU via Ireland until the EU accepts that we can send them back to France.
“We’re fully focused on operationalising our Rwanda scheme.”