Suella Braverman has insisted that Rwanda is a “safe” country to send asylum seekers to.
The home secretary insisted that High Court judges had sided with the Government over United Nations concerns about the safety of asylum seekers in East Africa.
“Rwanda is a safe country. It is appropriate for our purposes to work in partnership,” she said.
The assurances came as Laura Kuenssberg brought up the killing of 12 immigrants that had happened in 2018 after they complained about their food rations being reduced.
“According to the United Nations refugee body, a group of refugees staged a protest, the Rwandan police then fired live rounds at them and 12 people were killed,” Kuenssberg said.
“The Rwandan government says it was a last resort, there was violence at the protest, but the United Nations and eyewitnesses say that live rounds were fired.”
After showing footage of the aftermath of the protest, Kuenssberg asked Braverman: “Are you sure still that it is safe to send refugees to Rwanda?”
Braverman, who had earlier said she was “not familiar with that particular case”, replied: “That might be 2018, we’re talking about 2023 and beyond.”
Watch the footage in full below:
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