Flights deporting migrants to Rwanda will not take off until January “at the earliest” after an original target of getting the first aircraft to Kigali in the autumn was scuppered by the courts, The Veritas has been told.
The Home Office hopes to start the flights in the first two months of next year, when numbers crossing the Channel are at their lowest. A government source said it would be “advantageous” for the first removal flights to come during the winter months because it would “send a strong signal” to smugglers and migrants that they face a high chance of being deported once they reach Britain.
A total of 2,950 migrants crossed the Channel in January and February, compared with 5,229 who have crossed in