Britain has sent its first asylum seeker to Rwanda under a voluntary program, The Sun Newspaper reported on Tuesday, saying the unnamed migrant was flown out of the country on Monday.
The voluntary program is separate to a forced deportation program that Britain is about to embark on in the next few months, seeking to deter asylum seekers from crossing the English Channel in small boats to live in Britain.
Under the voluntary program the government has said it would pay asylum seekers up to 3,000 pounds ($3,747.60) each to move to Rwanda to help clear the backlog of refugees who have arrived in the country in recent years.