Home Secretary Pretty Patel has long wanted to keep asylum seekers in Australian-style offshore processing centers abroad, for example on the Atlantic island of Analipsi. Last year, talks began with Denmark on sharing a center in Rwanda to process asylum seekers, where they would stay during the processing of their applications. On Wednesday night, officials said Patel, who is in Rwanda this week, had secured a “migration and economic development partnership” with the Central African country. Although the agreement is intended to include the processing of certain asylum seekers in Rwanda, the details “have not yet been finalized,” according to an official. “There are some nuances to the broader agreement,” he said. It is an unenforceable, immoral and extortionate policy that would cost UK taxpayers billions of dollars during a cost of living crisis. Refugee rights campaigns have described the idea as “barbaric”, with former Tories international aid secretary Andrew Mitchell having previously claimed that the plan would cost more per person than staying at the Ritz Hotel in central London. The Rwandan government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will deliver a broader speech Thursday morning on how the government hopes to tackle illegal immigration, including small boat crossings through the English Channel. More than 600 people crossed on Tuesday alone and the numbers are expected to reach 1,000 a day in the coming weeks, according to the government. Johnson will point out that 27 people drowned in an attempt to cross the canal last November. “In the coming weeks there may be many more who will lose their lives at sea and whose bodies may never be recovered,” he said. “These wretched smugglers are abusing the vulnerable and turning the English Channel into a water cemetery.” He will say that only by controlling irregular immigration will the government be able to continue relocating vulnerable people from countries such as Ukraine, Syria and Afghanistan. Previous unsuccessful ideas proposed by the Home Office included the installation of floating walls in the English Channel, the use of wave motors to launch small boats and the processing of asylum seekers on disused oil rigs in the North Sea. Patel is expected to present details of the Rwanda deal later in the day. Downing Street said Rwanda was one of the fastest growing economies in Africa and was “recognized worldwide for its record in welcoming and integrating migrants”. Ministers will also announce plans for a new multimillion-pound processing center in the north of England – in recognition that not all asylum seekers will be sent to Rwanda. Yvette Cooper, the shadowy interior minister, described Rwanda’s proposal as “desperate and shameful. . . he tried to divert attention from his own violation of the law “, referring to the partygate scandal.

“It is an unenforceable, immoral and extortionate policy that would cost UK taxpayers billions of dollars during a cost of living crisis and make it quicker and not easier to make quick and fair asylum decisions,” he added. Enver Solomon, chief adviser to the Refugee Council, a British charity, said the group was terrified of the government’s “cruel and ugly decision” to send those seeking refuge in the UK to Rwanda. Solomon said official figures showed that two-thirds of the people crossing the Channel in small boats came from countries torn apart by war and persecution. “Every day we hear the stories of desperate Ukrainian families fleeing the war,” he said. “This is the brutal reality facing refugees fleeing conflict around the world, whom this government now wants to treat as a human burden that must be sent elsewhere.” Additional report by Andres Schipani