World News: Britain to fly asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing – Gulf Digital News

World News: Britain to fly asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing – Gulf Digital News

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will seek to move on from the uproar caused by his Covid-19 lockdown fine by announcing a plan to fly asylum seekers to Rwanda to be processed.

Johnson will set out the initiative in a speech on Thursday in Kent, south-east England, where thousands of migrants landed on Channel beaches in small boats last year, as he targets illegal immigration which is a concern for many in his party.

Britain's interior minister Priti Patel has travelled to Rwanda, where she will give details of the plan to set up a holding centre, which The Times newspaper reported would cost an initial 120 million pounds.

A government minister said the plan was focused on single young men. "This is about male economic migrants in the main," Secretary of State for Wales Simon Hart told Sky News. "There is a different set of issues with women and children."

Last year, more than 28,000 migrants and refugees made the crossing from mainland Europe to Britain. The arrival of migrants on rickety boats has been a source of tension between France and Britain, especially after 27 migrants drowned when their dinghy deflated in November.

Johnson will announce plans to tackle people smuggling-gangs and increase