UK presses ahead with plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda

The UN human rights office says it's still "extremely worried about the impact" of the UK's government plans to send some migrants to Rwanda if they arrive in the UK through illegal routes.

UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman has insisted Rwanda is a safe country for migrants.

She said on Sunday that she believed the Rwanda policy would have "a significant deterrent effect" so that people would stop making the journey across the Channel to the UK.

But the UN human rights office said assessments done by the UN refugee agency showed that the asylum system in Rwanda was "not robust enough".

"There are also concerns about respect for the right to freedom of assembly and freedom of expression in Rwanda. Those concerns do remain today," spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told the BBC's Newsday programme.

"We have a lot of evidence of how these plans [off-shore asylum facilities] go wrong," she added.