Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick lectured Rwandan government lawyers

Sign up for View email from Westminster for expert analytics straight to your inboxReceive our free email View from WestminsterPlease enter a valid email addressPlease enter a valid email addressI would like to receive emails about offers, events and updates day of The Independent. Read our privacy notice{{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}An error has occurred. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick gave lessons to Rwandan government lawyers as part of a charity project supported by the country's President, Paul Kagame, The Independent can reveal.< /p>

Then a lawyer, he visited the country on a 2008 trip for Tory MPs and party members, including the future Home Secretary Suella Braverman.

Mr. Jenrick, who was criticized for allegedly ordering staff to paint on happy paintings at a children's asylum unit in Kent, was elected to parliament six years later and is now playing a leading role in implementation of the Rwanda migration deal.

After it was ruled illegal by the Court of Appeal last week, Mr Jenrick fiercely defended the policy, telling MPs he was "categorically untrue" that asylum seekers were in danger in the country.

The court heard that Rwandan police shot and killed at least 12 refugees during a 2018 battle with food shortages, and that more recently authorities had turned back Afghan and Syrian asylum seekers.

The Court of Appeal ruling called Rwanda a “one-party state that reacts unfavorably to dissent” , but Mr Jenrick told Parliament he had been there himself and added: 'It is a safe country and one where we have a good working relationship.

"As soon as that we have the opportunity to do so in court, will get us off on those flights to Rwanda.

His two-week visit in 2008 was part of Project Umubano, which was described on its website as "the Conservative Party's social action project in Rwanda and Sierra Leone" and was ran from 2007 to 2017.

Other future and current MPs involved included Jeremy Hunt, Tobias Ellwood, Desmond Swayne, Rob Halfon, Damian Hinds, Mark Pawsey, Maggie Throup, Wendy Morton and Pauline Latham.< /p >

President Kagame is under...