Rwanda flights now on standby to take off ...in June

DEPORTATION flights to Rwanda have been booked to take off in June, the Daily Express understands.

- Steph Spyro and Sam Lister

Official papers, seen by this newspaper, show charter planes have been put on standby to remove illegal immigrants to the East African nation earlier than the official Government announcement yesterday.

Rishi Sunak vowed "no ifs, no buts, these flights are going" as he signalled the first deportations would happen within "10 to 12 weeks".

This timeline would see the first flights taking off in July.

However, the June date was discussed at a crunch meeting at Downing Street between the Prime Minister, his deputy Oliver Dowden, Home Secretary James Cleverly, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps and Illegal Migration Minister Michael Tomlinson.

A briefing document from the meeting states: "The first charter to flight Rwanda is provisionally scheduled for June."

Flights carrying failed asylum seekers on board will also start off taking before then, the official documents showed. The new agreement, which is separate to the main scheme, is aimed at removing thousands of migrants whose claims have been rejected and cannot remain in the UK, but are unable to return to their own country.

The document added: "The [Home Office] are also looking at the possibility of transferring some individual failed asylum seekers to Rwanda by commercial airlines ahead of the first [migration and economic development partnership] flight."