UNHCR legal officer on UK's asylum seeker plan

A senior legal officer for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Saturday criticised a plan by the UK government to send some asylum-seekers to Rwanda.

Larry Bottinick, Senior Legal Officer at UNHCR said "We think there's more effective ways and more humane ways to address this. One would be going back to some sort of equitable readmission agreement with France and other European countries so that people who have no particular reason to come to the UK can be returned. So that would include people who are already rejected in EU countries. You even get some that have been granted in some EU states and a lot that were in process. The other, more effective ways for people who don't have protection needs to actually be returned promptly. So properly rejected cases shouldn't stay for years and put down roots in the UK, have UK children. Then it makes it more difficult to send them back."

Britain and Rwanda had announced on Thursday that they had struck an agreement that will see some people arriving in the UK as stowaways on trucks or in small boats sent 4,000 miles to the East African country, where their asylum claims will be processed and, if successful, they will stay.

A building was already opened to the media to showcase where the asylum seekers would be held when they arrive to Rwanda.

The building, that has 50 rooms including places to eat and places to sleep, is being turned into a holding centre where asylum seekers will be held till their claim is processed.

The British government said the deal would help stop people smugglers sending desperate migrants on treacherous journeys across the English Channel. The UK says children, and families with children, will not be sent to Rwanda.