Home Secretary James Cleverly signs new Channel migrant flight deal with Rwanda designed to get planes in the air in the spring - but will it be enough to get scheme past the courts?

James Cleverly today signed a new treaty to get deportation flights heading to Rwanda by the spring.

The Home Secretary signed off a new agreement to offshore small boat arrivals amid a deafening clamour from the Tory backbenches at the scale of immigration, legal and illegal.

He and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak plan to get emergency legislation into the Commons within days designed to avoid the scheme being thwarted by the courts again.

The original £140million scheme was signed almost 18 months ago and not a single deportee has yet left UK soil by air.

It was deemed illegal by the Supreme Court last month, which said that Rwanda was not a safe country as those flown there could be sent back to their country of origin - a process known as 'refoulement'.

Speaking after signing the agreement, Mr Cleverly said Rwanda had made a 'clear and unambiguous commitment to the safety' of those who would be flown there and there was no 'credible' reason to block the flights with it in place.

But he declined to guarantee the flights would start by next spring.

Asked at the press conference in Kigali, Mr Cleverly said: 'We want to see this part of our wider migration plan up and running as quickly as possible.

'We feel very strongly this treaty addresses all of the issues of their lordships in the Supreme Court.'

The new deal is designed to remove the risk of refoulement, the Home Office said. It also broadens the role of the independent monitoring committee to include conditions for arrivals, the processing of claims and treatment and support they receive for up to five years after landing in Africa.

It will also set up a private complaints system and have 'unfettered access' to make reports on the situation.  

The new UK-Rwanda treaty will 'strengthen' the asylum processing system, Rwanda's foreign affairs minister Vincent Biruta said.

Speaking ahead of Mr Cleverly at a press conference in Kigali, Mr Biruta said this would happen 'by exchanging best practices and providing capacity building and expertise in the area of migration'.

He said: 'I want to reaffirm that the people relocated to Rwanda will be welcomed and that they will be provided both the safety and support they need to build new lives.

'Rwanda looks forward to further strengthening cooperation with the United Kingdom and to implementing this treaty.'

It came as Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick today accused Channel boat migrants of 'breaking into' Britain.

Mr Jenrick, who previously worked with ousted home secretary Suella Braverman, told Sky News: 'If you or I crossed an international border, or literally broke into another country, we would expect to be treated very seriously.'

He admitted it 'will take time' for new restrictions to have an effect on legal migration numbers as he insisted the Government is still committed to the Tory 2019 manifesto target.

Asked whether the goal to reduce overall numbers to below the 2019 net migration figure of around 219,000 would be met by the next election, the immigration minister told LBC Radio: 'The measures we're bringing forward now will take time to feed through in the system, but I want to see the manifesto commitment met.

'That's clearly why I have pushed for this set of measures.'

Mr Cleverly follows in the footsteps of predecessors Dame Priti Patel and Suella Braverman, who both made private visits to the site during their trips to Rwanda over the last 18 months.

After seeing a memorial garden and historical exhibits accompanied by centre staff, Mr Cleverly signed a visitor book with a message saying: 'Thank you for helping me see the pain you went through, but also the commitment to peace that you have chosen to make.

'We must never forget, but must learn, grow and work to a better future.'

The visit is part of a series of engagements Mr Cleverly is taking part in around the Rwandan capital on a one-day trip to the country.

It comes amid a separate clampdown on legal migration into the UK, which hit record levels at the end of last year.  New rules have raised the visa salary threshold and will bar more foreign workers from bringing their partners and children with them.

Writing in The Sun, the Prime Minister said there is 'far too much abuse of our system' which is 'not fair on the honest, hard-working British people'.

He wrote: 'There are just too many people migrating to the UK. So we've launched a new plan to cut migration, with a simple message.

'If you can't contribute to the UK, you are not coming to the UK.'

Mr Cleverly is expected to sign a treaty which will seek to address concerns raised by the court last month – and will be binding under international law.

Mr Sunak has said he is determined to get removals flights under way by the spring despite the court's rejection of the scheme.

He aims to overcome judicial objections with the treaty and new measures which will be set out in emergency legislation.

The number of small boat migrants who have reached Britain so far this year has topped 29,000 – eclipsing the figure for the whole of 2021.

More than 1,000 arrived across the Channel in the five days to Sunday, bringing the running total since the start of the year to 29,090. By comparison, the whole of 2021 saw 28,526 migrants arrive. However, this year's figure is still down by a third on last year's record number of 45,755.

In a ruling last month, judges said the scheme was unlawful on the grounds there was a risk that asylum seekers could be sent from Rwanda to a country where they may be put at risk.

In a further move to reassure judges about the scheme, British Government lawyers could be stationed in Rwandan courts to bolster the country's asylum system and the appeals mechanism.

Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer said the Home Office was looking 'very carefully' at the idea of sending lawyers to Rwanda to address concerns about the legal system there. 'Discussions around beefing up their legal expertise, their legal capacity, have certainly been part of the talks,' a Whitehall source told the Daily Telegraph.

Once the treaty is signed, ministers are expected to unveil emergency legislation setting out further moves to allow removals flights to finally take off.

It is understood there has been no decision on whether the new Bill will take the 'full-fat' option and withdraw parts of UK immigration law from the European Convention on Human Rights and other treaties. Alternatively, the measures could simply state Rwanda is a safe country – in a bid to counteract the Supreme Court ruling.

Downing Street yesterday denied reports that Rwanda is set to be paid an extra £15million for the scheme. The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'Certainly I don't recognise that figure of £15million, there's been no request for additional funding for the treaty made by Rwanda, or not offered by the UK Government.'

Mr Cleverly told the Commons last night: 'Immigration policy must be fair, legal, and sustainable. That's why we are also taking the fight to illegal immigration.

'Our plan to stop the boats is working. Small boat arrivals are down by a third, even as illegal migration across Europe is on the rise.'

Biggest ever clampdown 'will slash legal migration by 300,000' 

By David Barrett and Jason Groves 

James Cleverly last night vowed 'enough is enough' as he unveiled tough reforms designed to slash net migration by 300,000 a year.

After a battering from the Tory backbenches over record levels of immigration, the Home Secretary pledged a five-point plan would lead to the 'biggest ever reduction in net migration'.

Hailing 'the most substantial package of legal migration reforms this country has ever seen,' he said care workers will be barred from bringing family members to Britain.

The salary threshold for a work visa will rise by £12,500 to more than £38,000 a year. And to stop immigration 'undercutting British workers', he vowed to 'scrap cut-price shortage labour from overseas' by ending the 20 per cent salary discount for sectors with labour shortages, and slashing the list of eligible roles.

Critics warned the measures may not take effect soon enough to make a difference to migration figures before the next general election.

Mr Cleverly said the proposals – due to come into force in April – also expanded upon previous commitments to bar most foreign students from bringing family members to the UK.

After unveiling the plans, he was expected to fly to Rwanda last night to sign a new treaty in the hope of seeing deportation flights for small boat migrants begin as soon as possible.

Mr Cleverly told MPs: 'Enough is enough. We've got to bring these numbers down. In total this package, plus our reduction in student dependants, will mean around 300,000 fewer people will come in future years than have come to the UK last year.'

He said the measures were only possible thanks to the historic Brexit vote. 'When our country voted to leave the European Union, we voted to take back control of our borders,' he said.

'Thanks to this Conservative Government, we now have a points-based immigration system through which we control who comes to the UK.'

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's official spokesman said: 'This is the biggest clampdown on legal migration ever. It doesn't prevent us going further should we chose to do so in the future.'

Under the plan – announced days after it emerged net migration had hit an all-time high of 745,000 last year – the bar on care workers bringing dependants is expected to cut net migration by about 100,000 a year at current levels, it is understood.

Raising the salary threshold for a work visa to £38,700 is expected to slash a further 50,000 a year from the net total.

Crucially, care workers will be excluded from the salary hike in a bid to avoid worsening labour shortages in the sector. A review of the jobs on the 'shortage occupation list' will aim to cut the number of sectors it applies to.

Mr Cleverly also announced he will toughen family visas which allow relatives of foreign nationals to come here.

Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who was sacked three weeks ago, said the announcement was a 'step in the right direction' but was 'too late'.

'I put forward similar measures six times in the last year,' she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. 'I'm glad that the PM has finally agreed to introducing some of them now but the delay has reduced their impact.'

Mrs Braverman has previously accused the PM of reneging on a private agreement to cut migration, including a deal to raise the salary threshold to £40,000.

The new package echoes proposals put forward by former PM Boris Johnson in his Daily Mail column last month, when he advocated a £40,000 salary threshold and said business owners who had become accustomed to accessing cheap foreign labour should be 'called out'.

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said Mr Cleverly's plan was an 'admission of years of total failure by the Government'.