Responding to news that no flights to Rwanda would be taking off before the General Election, Enver Solomon, CEO of the Refugee Council, said:

“The Rwanda plan will go down in the history of British policymaking as an Alice in Wonderland adventure that was both absurd and inhumane.

The Government has been trying and failing  for over two years to get flights off the ground only to be frustrated by reality. The Rwanda plan won’t stop the boats, won’t stop the criminal gangs and won’t stop deaths in the Channel.

The simple truth is that the next government will be facing an asylum system in meltdown, as the backlog of cases without a decision keeps getting bigger and bigger.  It must quickly process all asylum claims and restore the right to asylum for any person who comes to our country seeking safety so they are given a fair hearing on UK soil and treated with the dignity and humanity they deserve. Anybody who has been detained should now be immediately released.”