It may be months before Britain starts sending illegal migrants to Rwanda, a spokesman for Boris Johnson has admitted.
As hundreds of people pour across the English Channel and into Britain, some have begun raising questions regarding how effective the UK government’s plan of sending illegal migrants to Rwanda is at actually deterring new arrivals.
However, with many left-leaning groups and individuals now looking to challenge the new border control measures in the courts, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has admitted that it may take months for the first migrants to actually be sent to the African country, assuming the government can succeed in fending off challenges to the plan.
According to a report by The Telegraph, the spokesman said that the legal cases were some of a number of “variables” delaying the plan’s implementation and that officials were now hoping to have the first flights to Rwanda in the air in “a matter of months.”
“I am simply saying that those legal challenges may be a factor which can mean it takes longer to implement the policy,” the spokesman is reported as saying.
“We have received pre-action correspondence from a number of legal firms, 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,” he continued, while also insisting that the migration deterrent was “fully legally secure”.
Secure or not, however, the fact that the migrant removal flights will only begin in a matter of months will certainly not aid the deterrent factor of the UK government’s plan, with a small survey of migrants already finding that few have even considered not making the dangerous channel crossing due to the new plan.
Officials in France seem to share the sentiments of the migrants who cross through their nation, with the elected representative for Calais, Pierre-Henri Dumont, saying that the plan would only serve to make the crossing more dangerous, and not actually scare away those looking to enter Britain.
“With the Rwanda solution, it will make the smugglers richer and it will be that the trip will be more dangerous because the only solution for them not to be deported to Rwanda is not to be caught because they can live in the UK quietly without getting in trouble because there is no ID checks on the streets,” the French republican politician is reported by The Times as saying.
“You can find a job illegally, you can have family and be illegal in the UK. It’s not the same as France, we do have a problem in France, huge problems, but it’s harder for them to have a job, a house, to make a family,” he continued.
Dumont also belittled the UK’s attempt to pay off the French authorities to keep the migrant crossings at bay, saying that it was a waste of taxpayers’ money and only served to worsen relations between the two nations.
“The UK taxpayer [is upset] because they say ‘we’re giving money to the French, what are they doing, we still have crossings’,” the member from Calais said.
“But we are not your b*tch,” he continued, arguing that the current system should be scrapped. “We know that the migrants will continue to cross and at the end it will make only people on both sides of the Channel angry and unhappy because we think you’re not giving enough money and you think you are giving us enough money and you don’t see the results.”
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