Nigel Farage believes “leftie lawyers” could bring an early halt to the new Rwanda immigration scheme.
Boris Johnson confirmed the new scheme earlier today, meaning illegal refugees will now be sent to the African country for processing.
But Farage believes that while the scheme could work in the short term, it won’t in the long run.
He said: “If, and i think there is an if, we do see many hundreds of young undocumented males who cross the English Channel being flown off to Rwanda, that will, certainly in the short term, act as something of a deterrent.
“After all, why would you pay a trafficker three thousand euros, five thousand euros, what ever the going rate may be if you were going to end up in Rwanda. After all it’s treasure island isn’t it that you want to come to, so it should be effective in the short term."
Nigel Farage
GB News
He continued: “But my real concern and worry is this.
“The Australian’s started off going down this route ten years ago when the boats started coming from Indonesia, an offshore processing centre.
“But the problem was that within a couple of months, there was stories of abuse and neglect at those reception centres and the whole world condemned Australia of being barbaric.
“There are already over 100,000 people in Rwanda, in these types of centres that have come from other countries and believe it or not some aid workers say condition in those camps aren’t great.
“All It would take is to hear of a couple of cases of abuse or intimidation and suddenly the leftie lawyers as Boris Johnson likes the call them, the human rights lawyers would be in action.
Boris Johnson has backed the scheme
Reuters
“And think about it, since the European convention on human rights came into British law, it’s difficult for us to even deport terrorists let alone young men who we have no idea whether they have criminal records or not.
“It’s going to be difficult, I can’t see this in the long term working.”
His comments come after Prime Minister Boris Johnson backed the scheme, despite receiving criticism for its launch.
Mr Johnson said the Government is fulfilling the outcome of the EU referendum and said illegal immigration has “bedevilled our country for too long”.
He continued: “We cannot sustain a parallel illegal system. Our compassion may be infinite, but our capacity to help people is not.
“The British people voted several times to control our borders, not to close them, but to control them.
“So just as Brexit allowed us to take back control of legal immigration by replacing free movement with our points-based system, we are also taking back control of illegal immigration, with a long-term plan for asylum in this country.”