UK flight due to leave for Rwanda despite migrant appeals

By DANICA KIRKA
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson beat back criticism of his plan to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda, saying that efforts attempting to block the flights were “abetting the work of criminal gangs’’ involved in smuggling people across borders. Johnson’s government has reached an agreement with Rwanda to deport people who enter the U.K. illegally to the East African country. The government contends this will deter people from paying criminals to help them take the risky journey across the English Channel. The policy has faced a series of legal challenges and sparked heated debate in Britain. Two courts decided not to block the deportation flights. The first flights are expected Tuesday, though perhaps with only a handful of people aboard.