Britain’s home secretary touts UK-Rwanda migrant deportation deal during visit to Italy

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Britain’s home secretary is touting Britain’s migrant deportation deal with Rwanda as a “new and creative” deterrent to an old and growing problem. But he says he takes seriously criticism by the U.N. refugee agency that it violates international law. Home Secretary James Cleverly visited Italy, ground zero in Europe’s migration debate, hours after the U.K. Parliament approved legislation allowing the government to deport some people to Rwanda who enter the country illegally. The deal is similar in some basic aspects to Italy’s controversial pact to outsource the processing of asylum-seekers to Italian-run centers in Albania.