At the meeting on Tuesday (April 9), the two leaders, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Rwandan President Paul Kagame discussed "the pioneering UK and Rwanda Migration and Economic Development Partnership," the German press agency dpa quoted a British government spokesperson as saying.

The partnership is intended to "break the business model of criminal gangs risking lives at sea," continued the spokesperson.

Legislation to enact the plan to send asylum seekers in the UK to Rwanda and get flights off the ground is still going through the Houses of Parliament, in a process known as legislative "ping pong."

Just before the Easter recess, the House of Lords returned the bill with more amendments, requiring additional debate and votes by parliament’s lower house, before the legislation becomes law.

Parliament is due to return to debating the Safety of Rwanda bill from April 15. Once the amendments have been debated and voted on, the bill must go for Royal assent, usually a formality, before it passes into law.

That is why Paul Kagame and Rishi Sunak reportedly said they are still looking forward to flights taking off to Rwanda "in spring."

However, their statements were overshadowed by reports in several right-wing newspapers that some of the homes built in Rwanda, intended to house asylum seekers, had already been sold off to local residents.

Also read: UK scammers targeting asylum seekers

Homes in Rwanda reportedly sold to private buyers

When she was Home Secretary (Interior Minister) Suella Braverman, fought hard to get the Rwanda plan off the ground. She referred to it in some interviews as her "dream," to see asylum seekers flown from the UK to Rwanda to be processed and granted asylum.

Now British right-wing newspapers like the Daily Mail, The Telegraph and The Times are reporting that at least 70 percent of the homes have already been sold off.

The Daily Mail reported that developers from the Bwiza Riverside Estate said that "sold" signs were popping up all over the estate. According to an unnamed developer, the homes had been sold to "private people who might want to live in them," reported the Daily Mail, underlining that there would only be a "few spaces available for asylum seekers if flights do ever take off."

As Paul Kagame entered Downing Street (the Prime Minister’s residence and seat of power) he was asked by reporters if these reports were true, but declined to answer.

Also read: UK dispute over deportations to Rwanda heats up

Estates reportedly created for mixed use

Despite the silence from the political leaders, Hassan Adan Hassan, managing director of one of the developers who worked in partnership with the two governments to build the homes told The Times newspaper "currently we’ve sold almost 70 percent of homes." Hassan told the newspaper the developers had been "left with some units." He added that water and electricity and fiber optic cables had all been connected to the houses and the roads and street lights were also in place.

The Rwandan government reportedly told the Times that the suggestion was "simply untrue." Yolande Makolo, chief Rwandan government spokesperson told the Times that the estate in question was just one of the housing options where asylum seekers might live.

Also read: Rwanda bill suffers more defeats and changes

The spokesperson further explained that the housing estates were never intended to be exclusively for asylum seekers and were meant to allow asylum seekers to live alongside Rwandans. "The idea is to integrate migrants into Rwandan communities, not create migrant ghettos."

Although millions have so far been spent and promised on the plan to send asylum seekers from Britain to Rwanda, only a few hundred places for them in Rwanda had initially been created. If what the developers told the Times is true, and some of those few hundred homes have been sold off to Rwanda, that would leave even fewer potential places for any asylum seekers to go.

Costs of Rwandan scheme increasing

And that would make the cost of this scheme, even if the first flights do take off as promised "in spring" even more expensive than government auditors have calculated.

Braverman herself is reportedly "disappointed" by the state of the Conservative government’s Rwanda plan. The homes that Braverman herself inspected when she was Home Secretary were built in a public-private partnership between the Kigali government and the ADHI Corporate Group of developers.

According to dpa, they are estimated to cost between 14,000 and 27,000 euros. On hearing of the reported sell-offs, Braverman told LBC radio "I'm disappointed to read that expectations have fallen and that the Rwandans are now selling off some of those properties."

Braverman repeated the mantra that governed her time in office, explaining, "the only way we generate a deterrent effect to stop people getting on the boats and coming to the UK illegally is regular flights, with hundreds of passengers on those flights being sent to Rwanda on a regular basis." Braverman said that she was "afraid as the plan stands today, it won’t deliver that."

Opposition calls Rwandan scheme a 'farce'

The opposition Labour party, on reading the report in the Times, demanded "urgent clarity" from the government on what they called the Rwanda "farce." Shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock, the son of former Labour Leader Neil Kinnock commented "now it seems there will be even less capacity to house those that are removed. The Tories’ so-called plan is unravelling by the day and taxpayers are footing the bill. It’s time for change."

An election is expected later this year, although Sunak has not yet announced a date. Many commentators expect it to be some time in the autumn. Before that, many of Britain’s largest cities and municipalities head to the polls on May 2 for municipal elections. That could indicate the way general elections might go later on.

Elections looming

More than 5,000 migrants have entered the UK via small boats in the Channel since the beginning of the year. The government continues to repeat that the Rwandan government "stands ready to host thousands of migrants under the partnership."

The British government said that the numbers that could be sent to Rwanda were "uncapped and provisions are in place to provide accommodation as required." The spokesperson said the government remained "focused on getting flights off the ground as soon as possible."

Sunak is keen to make the Rwandan plan work in order to try and revive the Conservative party’s flagging electoral fortunes and win back some of the more right-wing voters who see immigration as a key electoral issue.

With dpa and AFP