Zero flights until then

Sunak: “Rwanda planes take off – after the election”

Since his bold announcement, the British public has been waiting for Prime Minister Sunak's pet project of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda on a large scale to take off.(Bild: AFP/DARREN STAPLES)

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has called an early election for July 4. However, he will have to do without his supposed election campaign hit, as he admitted on Thursday: until then, there will not be a single deportation flight to Rwanda in East Africa - but after that it should go "blow by blow" ...

"If I am elected, the flights will take off," Sunak said in an interview with the radio station LBC. When asked several times, he clarified: "After the election." The preparations have been made, he emphasized, and the launch is scheduled for the summer.

Flight forward with an early election date
Sunak had surprisingly announced an early date for the parliamentary elections on Wednesday. The leader of the conservative Tories, who have been well behind the social democratic Labor Party in the polls for months, has made migration a key issue in the election campaign.

Sunak wants to declare war on dangerous irregular migration across the English Channel.(Bild: AFP/BEN STANSALL)

The plan is that people who enter the country by irregular means will no longer be able to claim asylum in the UK. They are to be taken directly to Rwanda and try their luck there.

Hundreds of millions poured in - for a single departure
Although 240 million pounds (a good 280 million euros) have already been sent to Rwanda, no migrants have been deported there so far, with the exception of one voluntary departure. Nevertheless, the program is repeatedly praised as a role model by politicians in the EU - most recently by Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) on the occasion of a visit by Sunak in Vienna.

According to Sunak, the Rwanda Pact is supposed to have a deterrent effect. However, there is no evidence of this so far. Experts doubt that migrants can be deterred from making the dangerous crossing in small boats across the English Channel to the UK.

Government majority brushes aside concerns: Rwanda declared safe
The United Nations, human rights organizations and the opposition in the UK criticize the project. The Supreme Court had declared the project unlawful due to concerns about the asylum procedure in Rwanda. The government majority in parliament then passed a law declaring Rwanda safe, despite opposition from the House of Lords.