Why is the UK sending asylum seekers to Rwanda?

Some asylum seekers who arrive in the UK will be sent to Rwanda, under government plans.

It says the scheme - which faces legal challenges - will discourage others from crossing the English Channel.

The five-year trial would see some refugees who arrive in the UK sent to Rwanda, to claim asylum there.

The first are due to be sent on on Tuesday 14 June.

It is thought to be aimed mostly at single, young migrants who arrive through "illegal, dangerous or unnecessary methods", such as on small boats or hidden in lorries.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Rwanda would take responsibility for those sent there, with equal access to employment and services.

But a Home Office source told the BBC that, of the original 37 people due to be sent on Tuesday, legal challenges about modern slavery and human rights had drastically reduced that number.

According to the charity Care4Calais, 11 people are now due to fly.

Charities and lawyers representing asylum seekers have launched legal action against the UK Home Office.

Two cases were being heard on Monday:

Asylum Aid says the procedure to deport asylum seekers is unfair because it does not allow enough time to access legal aid and appeal for the right to stay in the UK.

Other human rights groups have questioned whether Rwanda is a "safe third country" for asylum seekers and says the policy breaks the European Convention on Human Rights.

The prime minister said the government had anticipated "very active lawyers" would try to challenge the policy in the courts.

He said activists "want to have a completely open-doors approach to immigration" and it was important to "stop criminal gangs" trafficking people across the Channel in dangerous boats.

The country is already home to around 150,000 refugees from neighbouring Burundi and DR Congo.

Some refugees work as farm labourers and domestic servants. Most are unemployed, relying on state benefits of about £35 a month.

National income has risen tenfold since then. However, about 70% of the country's 13 million people are subsistence farmers, meaning they eat, rather than sell, what they grow.

Life expectancy has increased sharply since the 1990s and is now 69, according to the World Bank.

The Home Office said the UK asylum system currently costs £1.5bn a year, with more than £4.7m a day spent on hotels to accommodate homeless migrants.

Comparisons have been made to Australia's offshore processing system, which was estimated to cost $957m (£546m) in 2021-22.

The cost of removing people from the UK by charter flight was more than £13,000 per person in 2020.

There were 2,871 arrivals in May 2022, compared with 1,619 in the same month last year.

In the whole of 2021, 28,526 people are known to have crossed in small boats - up from 8,404 in 2020. The total figure this year is set to be much higher than last year, according to Border Force union officials.

In 2021, 75% of arrivals were men aged 18 to 39. About 5% were men aged over 40, 7% were women over 18, and 12% were children under 18 (of whom three-quarters were male).

Previously, Iranians made up the vast majority of arrivals - 80% in 2018, and 66% in 2019.