MIGRANT FLIGHTS READY TO TAKE OFF

EXCLUSIVE: Home Office prepares to draw up first passenger list for Rwanda

- David Williamson and Jonathan Walker

ILLEGAL migrants will learn within weeks if they have a place on board the first deportation flight to Rwanda, it was revealed last night.

Home Office officials are working through a list of names to handpick the first 200 passengers to leave if the Government's flagship Bill clears Parliament tomorrow. They have been ordered to have all the paperwork in order so they can be flown out swiftly once the removal plan is cleared for take off.

A massive operation will spring into action the moment the landmark legislation to stop flights being grounded by legal challenges becomes law.

Last night, on the eve of the crucial vote, Home Secretary James Cleverly sent a defiant message to Labour peers who have blocked the Bill 100 times.

He told the Sunday Express: “The public won’t stand for more delaying tactics, and neither will we.”

And Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has warned he will force meddling Lords to sit all night to get the Rwanda plan into law.

In another initiative, a massive advertising blitz will warn potential migrants in their homelands that it is now “dangerous” and “pointless” to come to Britain in a small boat.

A source close to the operation told the Sunday Express that work is going on behind the scenes on identifying who is “in scope” for the first flights.

More than 24,000 asylum seekers have been issued with letters warning them that they were being considered for removal.

About 4,000 of them are Albanians – the largest national group – with Iranians and Eritreans the next highest in number.

The notices of intent were sent out between January 2021 and March 2023.