Under a five-year agreement, the government said some asylum seekers arriving in the UK would be sent to Rwanda, to have their claims processed there.
If successful, they could be granted refugee status and allowed to stay. If not, they could apply to settle in Rwanda on other grounds, or seek asylum in another “safe third country”.
No asylum seeker would be able to apply to return to the UK. Under the policy, anyone “entering the UK illegally” after 1 January 2022 could be sent to Rwanda, with no limit on numbers.
Ministers have argued the plan would deter people from arriving in the UK on small boats across the English Channel. However, when the scheme was first announced, the most senior Home Office civil servant said there was little evidence the effect would be “significant enough to make the policy value for money”.
No asylum seeker has yet been sent to Rwanda – a small landlocked country in central Africa – 4,000 miles (6,500km) from the UK. The first flight was scheduled to go in June 2022, but was cancelled after legal challenges.