TORY leadership contenders queueing up to back the government’s cruel policy of sending asylum-seekers to Rwanda has been branded “deplorable” by a refugee charity. 

So far, nine out of the 11 candidates hoping to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister have said that they would continue the deporting of asylum-seekers to the east African nation. 

The past few days have seen candidates scrambling over one another to throw their weight behind the scheme, with former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt even pledging to expand it, despite the United Nations refugee agency warning that it would breach international law. 

On Sunday evening, former chancellor Rishi Sunak confirmed that he would continue the policy after previously remaining silent on the issue. 

His rival Attorney General Suella Braverman has gone further, saying that she would bring Britain out of the European Court of Human Rights after an intervention by the court led to the first planned flight to Rwanda being grounded on June 14. 

Refugee Action CEO Tim Naor Hilton condemned the spectacle of leadership candidates “battling against each other to diminish human rights” as “deplorable.”

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants spokesperson Ravishaan Muthiah said: “We know these same candidates are rightly welcoming Ukrainians and that one candidate is even a refugee himself, so why are they proudly announcing their commitment to such cruel and differential treatment? 

“The sad truth is that they’re just as committed to using refugees like a political football as Johnson was, brandishing minorities’ mistreatment as a way to court headlines and distract from their total lack of positive vision for the future.”

Freedom from Torture chief executive Sonya Sceats said that Mr Johnson’s resignation had offered a chance for the government to “leave behind the politics of division.

“But instead, every Conservative leadership candidate has doubled down on Johnson’s immoral ‘cash for humans’ deal with Rwanda,” she added.