Suella Braverman reacts after being told refugee protesters were shot dead in Rwanda in 2018

Home Secretary Suella Braverman has continued to defend her controversial plan to send refugees and asylum seekers to Rwanda on the Sunday political programmes, even after being told of an instance where the country’s police shot dead 12 refugees in 2018.

According to the US non-profit Human Rights Watch, in February that year, refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo were protesting a reduction in food rations when they were shot at by Rwandan police.

At least eight were immediately killed, one died afterwards from their injuries, while two pregnant women suffered miscarriages – the organisation states.

It was this incident which the BBCs Laura Kuenssberg decided to bring to the attention of Ms Braverman during their conversation on the former’s flagship politics show this weekend.

“Are you sure still that it is safe to send refugees to Rwanda, and I suppose the point here is, if something went terribly wrong, would you end the arrangement with that country?

“Would you say, ‘OK, you know what, that was a mistake, we will pull back’,” she asked.

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The home secretary replied: “I’m not in 2018, we’re looking at 2023 and beyond. The High Court – senior expert judges – have looked into the detail of our arrangement and found it to be a safe country and found our arrangement to be lawful.

“Rwanda, from which I’ve just returned, takes 100,000 refugees and resettles them and I met some of them in Rwanda in my recent visit from countries in the region.

“They have a track record for resettling and reintegrating people who are refugees or asylum seekers. I think we’re on strong ground to say that Rwanda’s a safe country, it is the right solution for us grappling with our small boats problem, and I believe it will strike the right balance of providing a humanitarian package of support for people who are refugees, but at the same time, being a deterrent for those seeking life in the UK.”

Pressed further by Kuenssberg, who pointed out the United Nations says Rwanda is not a safe place for refugees, Ms Braverman again referred to the High Court’s ruling.

Other remarks issued during the morning news round saw her fail to commit to an exact date for when the government would successfully stop small boat crossings, and argue that it was "unfair" to blame yet more chaos at Dover on Brexit.

It’s the latest controversy surrounding Ms Braverman, following her refusing to apologise to a child survivor of the Holocaust for the language she uses to describe refugees, and an edited image of her laughing in Rwanda going viral online last month.

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