LONDON –
Britain has sent its first asylum seeker to Rwanda under a voluntary programme, The Sun Newspaper reported on Tuesday, saying the unnamed migrant had flown out of the country on Monday.
The voluntary program is separate from a forced deportation program that Britain is launching in the coming months, which would discourage asylum seekers from crossing the English Channel in small boats to live in Britain.
Under the voluntary program, the government said it would pay asylum seekers up to 3,000 pounds ($3,747.60) each to move to Rwanda to help clear the backlog of refugees who have arrived in the country in recent years to work.
