First glimpse inside the Rwanda centre which will house Channel migrants

This morning we got our first glimpse of the accommodation asylum seekers who are flown to Rwanda will stay in.

The press pack were taken to a guest house built in 2014 about a mile from the centre of Kigali.

Called the Hope Guest House, it is intended to fulfil the migrant’s basic needs while they wait for their claims to be processed.

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There is a communal eating area where people will be served three meals a day, while there are 12 toilets and five showers for around 100 people and small bedrooms, which are around 12ft by 12ft with two beds in each.

It’s stripped back and basic, but comfortable enough, which is what you’d expect.

What I found most interesting about being shown around the building though, was what we didn’t see and the questions we didn’t have answered.

Why are migrants being sent to Rwanda and how will it work?

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Britain has a growing backlog of asylum claims which has reached £1.5 billion a year and if the government wants to use these accommodation blocks as a backstop, it will need to find more of them and scale-up fast.

Government officials who took us around the accommodation in Kigali showed us a mini replica of what the block will look like when it’s finished.

They’re planning on building two more 50-room blocks in the compound – but when we asked when those would be finished, we didn’t get definite answer.

There is no doubt building enough accommodation fit for purpose in Rwanda will be a huge challenge alongside the considerable legal and moral challenges this proposal will entail.

The Royal Navy will take over responsibility for dealing with people crossing the Channel, the PM has said on Thursday.

Speaking at a news conference in Kigali, Home Secretary Priti Patel said the new policy is the “biggest overhaul” of the UK’s asylum system in “decades”.

“The global approach to asylum and migration is broken,” she said.

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