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Rwanda's state-owned airline has rejected a UK government proposal to fly asylum seekers to Kigali as part of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's plan to move migrants abroad because it fears damaging its brand.
The UK government approached RwandAir late last year about operating transfer flights from Britain to Rwanda, but it rejected the offer due to concerns about reputational risks, according to two people familiar with the situation.
The airline, wholly owned by the Rwandan government, has expanded its operations in the UK over the past year and will begin daily commercial flights from London Heathrow Airport to Kigali from the end of this month.
“RwandAir said ‘no’ because of the potential damage to its brand,” a Home Office insider said, noting the “irony” of the national airline distancing itself from the scheme which the Rwandan government said it was “proud” to take part in. . .
They also questioned the idea of contracting a Royal Air Force plane to transport asylum seekers, saying it would be “too expensive”.
Sunak has made “stopping boats” crossing the English Channel one of five pledges to voters ahead of the election, and a plan to transport migrants to Rwanda is the centerpiece of his strategy.
The Supreme Court ruled against the policy last year and no one has been sent to Rwanda yet, but government officials say the scheme will act as a deterrent to other people hoping to make the trip from France to the UK.
Sunak met Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda, in Downing Street on Tuesday. Number 10 then said: “The two leaders are looking forward to flights departing for Rwanda in the spring.”
Their meeting came as the NGO Freedom from Torture launched a campaign to discourage other airlines from participating in deportations to Rwanda, describing the policy as “cruel and wrong.”
It has already excluded some commercial carriers and charter airlines used by the UK and other European governments for deportation flights.
Thousands of people emailed AirTanker, a British charter airline contracted to the Ministry of Defense and the RAF, within hours of the launch of the Freedom From Torture campaign, seeking to persuade the company to exclude itself from the Rwanda plot, as it did in 2022. For comment.
Privilege Style, the Majorca-based carrier originally contracted by the Home Office to operate flights to Kigali in 2022, has withdrawn following a mass mailing campaign run by the same charity.
The crackdown came after the European Court of Human Rights ruled to stop the first flight, triggering a series of legal challenges that have hampered the removals until now. Privilege Style said at the time that it “will not operate flights to Rwanda in the future.”
The Rwandan government declined to comment. RwandAir has been contacted for comment.
Ministers are working quickly behind the scenes to make the Rwanda blueprint workable before the legislation returns to Parliament next week for its final rounds of “ping-pong” between the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Their Senate peers inflicted a series of defeats on Rwanda's asylum bill last month.
One person familiar with the government's plans – which are subject to change – said officials were currently targeting mid-to-late May for the first flights, and that the Home Office was casting a wide net to determine who could be sent in the first tranche.
This can include people who have exhausted all their appeals processes and those who have registered to move to Rwanda voluntarily.
“It's a proof of concept,” the person said, adding that the optics of flight through the air would be the same regardless of who was in it.
Under an agreement signed by London and Kigali this year, unsuccessful asylum seekers who cannot be repatriated are offered £3,000 to move to Rwanda rather than remain in the UK.
But people familiar with the scheme said no one had officially signed up yet. Although a group of asylum seekers submitted expressions of interest and spoke to Home Office representatives, they later changed their minds, the people said.
“We have robust operational plans to launch flights to Rwanda in the spring,” the Interior Ministry said.
