Trump begins removing migrants to RWANDA in ‘humiliation’ to UK less than year after Labour axed our scheme
DONALD Trump has begun removing migrants to Rwanda — less than a year after Labour axed our deportation scheme.
Sir Keir Starmer came under fire last night for scrapping the deal only for the US President to clinch his own.
An Iraqi man has already been sent to the East African nation, with more due to follow, according to US media.
A diplomatic cable touts the possibility of a full-scale “removal program for third-country nationals”.
It suggests the US would pay Rwanda to support housing, bureaucracy and integration costs.
Britain signed its deal with Rwanda in 2022 under Boris Johnson’s Tory government to try to deter small boat migrants crossing the Channel.
But the first scheduled removal flight that year was scuppered by European judges, and the process became mired in legal wrangling, without a single plane taking off.
Sir Keir dismissed it as a “gimmick” and binned the plan on his first day in office, revealing it had cost taxpayers more than £700million.
Ex-Tory Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who visited Rwanda during her tenure, said the US move was “humiliating for the UK”.
She added: “It would have made the British people safer and stopped the boats.
“The Americans are showing us what proper border control looks like.”
Labour’s Home Secretary Yvette Cooper insists she is ramping up deportations of illegal migrants.