The foreign minister of Botswana revealed that his nation had been asked to accept some of the United Kingdom's "unwanted immigrants," but had turned down the offer.

Lemogang Kwape made these remarks on Tuesday during a phone interview with the South African television station Newzroom Afrika. The interview was conducted only hours after the British Parliament ultimately approved legislation permitting the controversial proposal to relocate some migrants to Rwanda. The first flights to Rwanda in East Africa, according to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, will now depart in July.

Kwape didn't say when the U.K. approached the southern African nation of Botswana. It struck its contentious deal with Rwanda in April 2022 and British media has reported that the U.K. government has since held talks with four countries — Armenia, Costa Rica, Ivory Coast and Botswana — over replicating the Rwanda plan.

"I can confirm that indeed the British government through the foreign secretary and the minister for Africa did approach Botswana through diplomatic channels to receive illegal migrants that are destined for the United Kingdom, but we did not accede to their request," Kwape told Newzroom Afrika.

"We have enough problems that we are dealing with, especially immigration problems in our neighborhood," he said. "So I think to receive unwanted immigrants from another country while we are dealing with our own problems in the region will be unfair to Botswana."

Kwape said British authorities had mentioned migrants from Afghanistan as some of those they were proposing might be moved to Botswana but that was the only country mentioned.

"They were not that explicit," Kwape said.

Sunak's plan to stem the tide of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats in the hope of claiming asylum in the U.K. has been beset by court battles and legislative delays and has been fiercely criticized by human rights groups.

The agreement will see migrants who arrive in the U.K. as stowaways or in boats sent to Rwanda, where their asylum claims would be processed. If successful, they would stay in Rwanda.

The British government has already paid Rwanda at least $298 million for the asylum plan even though no migrants have been deported yet.