Members of Dorset churches are meeting near the Sandbanks car park to release paper heart-aeroplanes to fill the sky with hope and express their opposition to the Rwanda scheme.

The demonstration will take place from 3 to 4pm on Saturday 29th October.

“People are dismayed that the government has been planning to send vulnerable asylum seekers to a country with a poor human rights record,” said Judith Williams, one of the organisers. “Members of Churches Together in  Poole have been very positive about our planned protest.”

Several Poole churches, including St Mary’s RC, St George’s and Buckland Road Baptists, have prepared paper hearts to display at the gathering.

One of the refugees who recently received a deportation notice was a rape survivor, a heavily pregnant woman from Eritrea, although following protests, the Home Office has since rescinded the threatened removal.