Boris Johnson has promised not to send Ukrainian refugees who fleeing the conflict in their country to Rwanda, despite a new agreement to send asylum seekers there.

The plan to send refugees out to the East African nation has angered many migrant rights groups, who say refugees could be put in danger out there.

Migrants who have crossed the Channel in small boats are among some of those that will be notified that they face a one-way ticket to Rwanda.

The Prime Minister made his point when speaking on LBC Radio and said that the prospect of Ukrainian refugees being sent out to Rwanda was "simply not going to happen".

The Northern Echo: Migrants being brought over to Dover in Kent (PA)Migrants being brought over to Dover in Kent (PA)

He went on: "There's two totally different things, so what's happening with the Ukrainian schemes, there are two of them.

"They're both uncapped. They're both incredibly generous and they're intended to help people who have relatives in Ukraine that want to bring them over.

"So you have a quite a big Ukrainian community in the UK, perhaps 20,000 or 30,000 people, who want to bring relatives, distant relatives they can be, we don't mind, over to the UK. That’s scheme number one.


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"Scheme number two is the Homes for Ukrainians scheme. And, you know, that, yes, you've got to be careful. You've got to make sure that you're getting two things right.

"First of all, you've got to make sure that you're getting the right families, the right homes for Ukrainians.

"You've also got to make sure, in quite a difficult time for Ukraine, when we don't know the identities exactly of people leaving the theatre of war, you got to make sure that you're screening people as well.

"In spite of those difficulties, we've got 67,000, I think, the last numbers I saw coming in to stay with people in our country. I'm proud of that. I'm proud of the numbers that we're generating and don't forget this is on top of what the UK has already done with Afghans, with Syrians, with the Hong Kong Chinese.

"There is no country that has opened its hearts more to people fleeing war and persecution around the world since 2015. No one's done more."