The Home Office has come up with a unique way to prepare for deportation flights to Rwanda. They have rented an aircraft hangar and a fuselage to create a training ground for security officials. The goal is to practice forcibly removing migrants onto planes in a safe and controlled environment.
During these training sessions, migrants will be escorted one by one from a detention facility on an airbase by security guards. These guards have undergone special training programs to handle any “disruptive” individuals they may encounter.
To simulate real-life scenarios, staff members will act out different situations that the Home Office expects them to face when moving migrants onto planes bound for Kigali. This includes scenarios where migrants resort to violence to resist being put on a plane or even Extinction Rebellion-style protests, where individuals “play dead” by lying on the floor and refusing to move.
By providing this hands-on training experience, the Home Office hopes to better prepare their security officials for any challenges they may face during deportation flights.