UK aims to send migrants to Rwanda in months if courts agree

By IGNATIUS SSUUNA and JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — Britain’s government says it could start deporting asylum-seekers to Rwanda in the next few months if U.K. courts rule that the controversial policy is legal. The Home Office said Sunday that it was aiming to start flights “before the summer.” The news came as Home Secretary Suella Braverman visited Rwanda to reinforce the Conservative government’s commitment to the plan. She met with President Paul Kagame and Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta and visited accommodation intended to house deportees from the U.K. The U.K. and Rwanda have struck a deal under which some migrants who arrive in the U.K. in small boats would be sent on a one-day trip to Rwanda. The plan is mired in legal challenges and no one has yet been deported.