Le Pen voiced her support for the plans, but admitted there are ‘more efficient methods’
Far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has voiced her support for Boris Johnson’s plans to fly unwanted asylum seekers in the UK to Rwanda.
The nationalist candidate welcomed the plans, telling the BFM news channel that they “could work.”
She also suggested that there would be far cheaper and “more efficient” ways of processing applicants, the Evening Standard reports.
The scheme, announced on Thursday by Johnson, would see Rwanda paid tens of millions bu the UK to process refugees and economic immigrants that try and cross the Channel to England.
Thousands travel through France to get to the Channel and try and cross into Britain so the plans are of significance to the French government.
Le Pen is a far-right nationalist, known for her strong anti-immigration policies and views. Despite the fact she seemed broadly in favour of the plans, even she admitted that there “are more efficient methods.”
She said it would be better for “asylum seekers to be processed by the French consulates in whichever country they find themselves in.”
The reported cost of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda is around £30,000 a person, a figure described by Tory MP Andrew Mitchell as “eye-watering.”
It would be much cheaper to put refugees in the Ritz, or send under-18s to Eton than send them offshore.
Tory MP Andrew Mitchell last month. pic.twitter.com/jaJubWsh4A
— PoliticsJOE (@PoliticsJOE_UK) April 14, 2022
Questions have also been raised about the country’s human rights record, with Rwanda most associated with the 1994 ethnic genocide in the country, which saw around 800,000 Tutsis killed in just 100 days.
Amnesty International says there are still concerns in the country over “enforced disappearances, allegations of torture and excessive use of force.”
Le Pen is gearing up for a head-to-head battle with Emmanuel Macron in the second round of the French presidential election.
The French population will vote on April 24 to decide its next leader. Macron is ahead in the opinion polls, but the gap is narrowing and is closer than may have been predicted a few weeks ago.
Related links:
- Car crash interview with Tory MP shows just how wrong Rwanda asylum flights are
- Macron warns Russian president the ‘worst is to come’ in Ukraine
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