Rwanda's president has promised that if the United Kingdom does not go ahead with plans to deport the migrants, the African country will return the “money” it received, which, according to the British government, is 280 million euros.
“It will only be used if migrants come,” Paul Kagame told the BBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland).
London expects to spend a further 50 million pounds (about 58.2 million euros) in the next financial year, although not a single flight has yet taken off.
Kagame, who did not make clear how much he would be willing to pay back and how he would administer it, also distanced himself from the UK's internal problems with processing the plan, both political and legal.
“This is a UK problem, not a Rwandan problem,” he said.
The initiative dates back to Boris Johnson's time in Downing Street, but has not been implemented following an “extreme” suspension ordered in June by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and a final rejection by the United Kingdom's Supreme Court. – November.
Rishi Sunak's government has tried to overcome legal doubts by signing a new agreement with Rwanda, based on which it is now drafting a new law it wants to pass in parliament.
However, the new bill has exacerbated internal divisions within the Conservative Party, with two senior Conservative Party officials resigning on Tuesday to join Tory critics, who now number around 60.
A more conservative faction believes the text does not warrant deportations, while moderates fear tightening the law could lead to violations of international law.
Human rights organizations, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), expressed their concern about the initiative and called on the British authorities to step back and accept their own asylum obligations.
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