GB News host Charlie Peters has clashed with a Human Rights Lawyer after claiming that asylum seekers could not be sent to Rwanda due to its "widespread genocide".
Discussing the Government's latest plans to tackle the illegal migrant crisis, Shoaib Khan dismissed the deportation plan put in place by the Tories, casting doubt over it having any success.
He told GB News: "We spent £1billion almost on Rwanda, sent three home secretaries there and that's it. So I don't think that's really the way to go or something we should be trying to emulate or replace or think of again.
"There are lots of things that the Government can be doing, but clearly they don't have the will. The Government's obviously much more worried about how the policies come across to the public rather than actually doing something that's going to make a difference."
Pushing back on Mr Khan's argument, host Olivia Utley argued that the Rwanda plan "failed" because "human rights lawyers like you intervened at the 11th hour and managed to stop it from happening".
Olivia told Mr Khan: "Perhaps human rights lawyers should be a bit more helpful to the Government when they try and come up with a scheme to stop this appalling abuse of human rights as people come across the Channel?"
The lawyer hit back: "And have the asylum seekers being sent to Rwanda, a country that had widespread, recognised genocide just a few decades ago?
"And where just a few years ago, the security forces opened fire on migrants and asylum seekers who were trying to protest outside the UNHCR."
Charlie Peters shut down human rights lawyer Shoaib Khan after claiming that Rwanda was not a safe country for asylum seekers
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Charlie interjected Mr Khan, arguing: "That's just not going to wash with British taxpayers, saying we can't deport people to Rwanda because decades ago there was a genocide?
"Decades ago, lots of horrible things happened in many other countries as well. The fact of the matter is Shoaib Khan, plenty of other European countries are moving in this direction."
Charlie made clear: "We're seeing Germany deporting people now to Afghanistan, and several other nations making efforts to that effect.
"Meanwhile, it seems that Britain, which started this trend but then bottled it and couldn't get Rwanda over the line, is being left behind?"
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The ages of asylum seekers will be determined by the new software | GETTYMr Khan told GB News: "Just because Germany is doing it, doesn't mean it's right. I know you say about the human rights lawyers that stopped that flight, but a year later, I think the Government should be grateful that they stopped that flight going.
"Otherwise, they would have been ordered to bring those people back, and that would have cost more time and money."
Disagreeing with Mr Khan, Charlie declared that the Labour Government is now "paying the price" for abandoning the Rwanda plan.
He told the human rights lawyer: "It was a lack of political will from the Conservatives, Labour got rid of it straight away and now they're paying the price.
Mr Khan told GB News that the Labour Government 'doesn't have the will' to curb the migrant crisis
|GB NEWS
"A record number of crossings last year, 130 yesterday, 1,500 since Friday, it's not working, the current plan. It's clear from the experience of other countries that a deportation strategy is the only one that works."
Mr Khan concluded: "I'm all for parliamentary supremacy and sovereignty, but you can't just change the facts. It's just gimmicks, isn't it? I think our Government just doesn't have the will."
Border Security Minister Alex Norris told GB News of the Government's latest AI deal: "For too long, adult migrants making false age claims have exploited the system and diverted vital support away from children at risk.
"That is why we are rolling out AI technology to put a stop to this, ensuring those who game the system are identified, detained and removed without delay, and those who deserve support and protection are given it."