Boris Johnson has said that he is prepared to defend his Government’s Rwanda asylum plan to Prince Charles during an upcoming meeting with the royal. The Prime Minister was speaking at a Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Rwanda.
He is set to meet the future King in the country’s capital city of Kigali on Friday, The Mirror reports . Mr Johnson said at the meeting that he would be demanding his critics “keep an open mind about the policy”, referring to the controversial plans to send asylum seekers arriving in the UK to Rwanda.
He continued: “If I am seeing the prince tomorrow, I am going to be making that point.”
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Asked whether he will defend the policy if the matter is raised during his meeting with Prince Charles , Mr Johnson replied “yes”. He added: “It hasn’t come up so far, of course.”
The meeting between the prince and the PM comes after Charles reportedly dubbed plans to send migrants to Rwanda “appalling”. The royal is currently representing the Queen at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting alongside Johnson.
The £120 million deal between Rwanda and the UK will see asylum seekers flown 4,000 miles for processing in the country. Mr Johnson met with Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame earlier in his visit, with Downing Street reporting that the two leaders praised the “successful” scheme.
Downing Street went on to claim that the policy, full name the UK Rwanda Migration and Economic Development Partnership, “is tackling dangerous smuggling gangs while offering people a chance to build a new life in a safe country”.
A plane that was due to carry the first seven asylum seekers to Rwanda at an estimated cost of £500,000 earlier this month did not take off after intervention by the European Court of Human Rights. The scheme has been subject to widespread criticism, with senior Church of England leaders describing it as “an immoral policy that shames Britain”.
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