UK Home Office Won't Deny Reports Asylum Seekers Will be Off-Shored to Rwanda

© REUTERS / HENRY NICHOLLS / Migrants are brought into the Port of Dover after being rescued while crossing the English Channel, in DoverMigrants are brought into the Port of Dover after being rescued while crossing the English Channel, in Dover
Migrants are brought into the Port of Dover after being rescued while crossing the English Channel, in Dover - Sputnik International, 1920, 05.04.2022
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Authorities have estimated that as many as 60,000 people will be trafficked to the UK by sea in dangerously-overloaded boats this year, where others are already housed in hotels or makeshift reception centres.
The British Home Office has not denied reports of plans to send asylum-seekers to off-shore processing centres in the east African nation of Rwanda.
The Times reported on Tuesday that Prime Minister Boris Johnson would soon announce plans to "outsource" processing.
The anonymous sources quoted by the newspaper said Johnson had planned to reveal the scheme last week in response to soaring numbers of illegal immigrants being trafficked across the English Channel from mainland Europe.
But they claimed the PM “wobbled” after colleagues feared preparations were incomplete.
“He wanted to go ahead with it but it’s just not ready,” a government source told The Times. “It’s close but there are still a lot of things in the balance.”
Responding to questions about the report, a Home Office spokesperson did not confirm or deny the claims.
"As set out in our New Plan for Immigration, we are committed to working closely with a range of international partners as we continue to fix our broken asylum system," the spokesperson told Sky News.
Migrants sit beside a boat used to cross the English Channel as more migrants are helped ashore from a RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) lifeboat at a beach in Dungeness, on the south-east coast of England, on November 24, 2021 - Sputnik International, 1920, 05.03.2022
Up to 60,000 Migrants to be Trafficked Across English Channel in 2022
Several backbench MPs from the ruling Conservative Party have criticised the concept of "off-shoring" the rising number of claimants. David Davis, Andrew Mitchell and Simon Hoare tabled an amendment to the Nationality and Borders Bill currently in Parliament against the practice, but were defeated.
Davis said the move would create "a British Guantanamo Bay" and would be a "moral, economic and practical failure," while Mitchell suggested it would cost more than housing immigrants at London's swanky Ritz hotel.
The report was not the first to claim the UK is planning to imitate Australia's controversial policy of sending asylum-seekers to detention and processing centres in other countries.
Last November, Albanian Foreign Minister Olta Xhacka denied Times journalist Tom Newton-Dunn's claim that her country would play host to some of those claiming asylum in Britain. Newton-Dunn even managed to mis-identify Xhacka as a man.
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