RWANDA flights will stop the boats like Australia's hard-line policy did, Suella Braverman vowed today.
The Home Secretary insisted that the only way Britain would stop the boats properly would be after we can relocate people to the African nation to act as a proper deterrent.
It came at least 79 migrants have drowned and 100 were rescued after their boat capsized off the coast of Greece – the deadliest disaster this year.
However, she admitted that she wouldn't be able to completely eliminate the backlog of cases as long as the "boats keep coming".
And the plan may not work out, adding saying: “success is contingent on many unknown factors”.
She added: "We believe deterrence is an important factor in this new framework.
"Once we are able to relocate people to Rwanda , we will see a drop off in the number of people coming and the reduction in the pressure put on the state and our housing…
"That is how the Australian model bore out, once they were able to put on flights to another territory, the number of people, in a short space of time, the people coming on the boats, fell pretty dramatically."
In 2012, Aussie ministers restarted their policy of sending illegal arrivals for asylum processing in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, with was extended in 2013.
They also started turning back boats – escorting them to the edge of their waters, and signing more returns deals.
In 2014 the numbers tumbled right down, and the boats stopped altogether in 2015.
In a tense grilling from MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee, Ms Braverman admitted they would have to increase their detention capacity to hold people coming here on small boats before removing them.
Ministers will soon get a new legal duty to remove people from the country within 28 days.
She said of the scheme, which is currently waiting on the outcome of a court appeal: "Rwanda is a deterrent, we want to stop the people smuggling gangs, stop putting on unseaworthy vessels. Once we can operationalise it, we can see a fall in the number of people."
It comes as another 204 in just four boats arrived in Britain on Monday – as the numbers making the dangerous crossing start to climb.
She hit back at claims ministers would not reach their target to eliminate the backlog – insisting they would look at the 92,000 legacy cases by the end of the year.
And she had a heated spat with Chair Dame Diana Johnson over the numbers of migrants abusing modern slavery laws to try and stay in the UK.
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But she admitted that only when the Rwanda plan has got the green light from the courts will they be able to see how much it will cost.
"Those timelines are out of our control", she said. "I have every confidence in our Rwanda plan, once we are able to operationalise it."
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Judges are due to report back their decision on whether the policy is legal in the next fortnight.
Ministers hope that if they win the upcoming case, they could start the flights within weeks.
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