Boris Johnson confirms Home Office’s plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda

Johnson said that the change will combat the "vile people smugglers"

The Tory government has laid out its "unethical" plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda while they await processing to enter the UK. In a press conference today (April 14) Prime Minister Boris Johnson detailed his government's plans that will see migrants "offshored" 4,000 miles away from the UK while they wait for a decision on their asylum application. It's believed that the Rwandan government will receive £120m as part of the plans, which the British taxpayer will finance, according to The Independent. Johnson said that the change will combat the "vile people smugglers" turning the ocean into a "watery graveyard", reports Sky News. https://twitter.com/bmay/status/1514360143001104393 Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper branded the announcement as "desperate and shameful" as it would cost the UK taxpayer billions during the cost of living crisis. She believes it will make asylum processes “harder, not easier." https://twitter.com/Femi_Sorry/status/1514516643418091526 She argued that it's an attempt from the Prime Minister to “distract from his own law-breaking." “The Home Office is now a catalogue of failure, from passport queues to Ukrainian visa delays, to rising crime and falling prosecutions. Instead of getting a grip on the basics, all Priti Patel and Mr Johnson do is come up with wild and unworkable headlines. Britain deserves better,” she suggested. [caption id="attachment_329823" align="alignnone" width="2048"] Via Getty[/caption] “Far from enabling people to rebuild their lives, we know from where this has been done by other countries [that] it only results in high levels of self-harm and mental health issues, and can also lead to people ending up back in the hands of people smugglers,” Enver Solomon, from Refugee Council, said. https://twitter.com/AvaSantina/status/1514518467776499714 Even Johnson's own legions are against the move, with Conservative former minister Andrew Mitchell stating that it would cost roughly $2m per refugee. The Ritz hotel would be cheaper, he argued. https://twitter.com/GNev2/status/1514456542933925896 According to reports, Home Secretary Priti Patel wants to curb the number of "economic migrants" entering the country. Patel is currently in the Rwandan capital of Kigali where she is set to sign the deal and will later detail the "migration and economic development partnership." https://twitter.com/TimAdams76/status/1514358727939432454 Related links:

• Refugee crisis: 'Why must I live like an animal while Ukrainians get help to England?'
• 'It's England or die' - life inside the refugee camps in northern France
• Visas for Ukraine refugees stuck in Calais will be processed in Lille - 70 miles away