The UK has announced that it will send migrants and asylum-seekers who cross the Channel thousands of miles away to Rwanda under a controversial deal that was announced on Thursday, April 14, 2022.
The move by the Government is expected to clamp down on record numbers of people making the perilous journey to Britain. “From today, anyone entering the UK illegally as well as those who have arrived illegally since January 1 may now be relocated to Rwanda”, Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, announced in a speech near Dover in Southeastern England.
“Rwanda will have the capacity to resettle tens of thousands of people in the years ahead.”
Prime Minister, Boris Johnson
Acting Otherwise After Election
He called the East African nation “one of the safest countries in the world, globally recognised for its record of welcoming and integrating migrants.” Mr. Johnson was elected partly on promises to curb illegal immigration but has instead seen record numbers making the risky Channel crossing. He also announced that Britain’s Border Agency would hand over responsibility for patrolling the Channel for migrant boats to the navy.
“The Royal Navy will take over operational command from Border Force in the Channel with the aim that no boat makes it to the UK undetected,” Johnson disclosed, as he announced extra funds for boats, aircraft and surveillance equipment to help detain people-smugglers at sea.
“This will send a clear message to those piloting the boats. If you risk other people’s lives in the Channel, you risk spending your own life in prison.”
Prime Minister, Boris Johnson
More than 28,000 people arrived in Britain having crossed the Channel from France in small boats in 2021. Around 90% of those were male and three-quarters were men aged between 18 and 39. The Rwanda plan quickly drew the anger of opposition politicians who accused Johnson of trying to distract from being fined for breaking coronavirus lockdown rules in his No.10 Downing Street office, while rights groups slammed the project as “inhumane”.
Ghana and Rwanda were previously mentioned as possible locations for the UK to outsource the processing of migrants, but Ghana in January 2022, denied its involvement. Instead, Kigali, on Thursday, April 14, 2022, announced that it has signed a multi-million-dollar deal to do the job, during a visit by British Home Secretary, Priti Patel. “Rwanda welcomes this partnership with the United Kingdom to host asylum seekers and migrants, and offer them legal pathways to residence” Foreign Minister, Vincent Biruta, in the East African nation, noted in a statement.
“This is about ensuring that people are protected, respected, and empowered to further their own ambitions and settle permanently in Rwanda if they choose.”
Foreign Minister, Vincent Biruta
The deal with Rwanda will be funded by the UK to the tune of up to £120 million ($157 million, Є144 million), with migrants “integrated into communities across the country,” the statement by Foreign Minister added.
The Backlash
Refugee Action’s (an advocacy group) Tim Naor Hilton, on the other hand has accused the UK Government of “offshoring its responsibilities onto Europe’s former colonies instead of doing our fair share to help some of the most vulnerable people on the planet”.
“This grubby cash-for-people plan would be a cowardly, barbaric and inhumane way to treat people fleeing persecution and war.”
Refugee Action’ Chief Executive, Tim Naor Hilton
Another group, Detention Action (an advocacy group campaigning for detention reforms), also disclosed that those sent there would “likely face indefinite detention under a government allegedly known for violent persecution of dissent. At the same time, the UK currently gives asylum to Rwandan refugees fleeing political persecution”.
Scotland’s Health Secretary, Humza Yousaf, pointed out in a tweet that the plan showed that the Conservative Government Is “institutionally racist”. The government “rightly provides asylum and refuge to Ukrainians fleeing war, but wants to send others seeking asylum thousands of miles away to Rwanda for ‘processing’.”
Australia has a policy of sending asylum seekers arriving by boat to detention camps on the Pacific Island nation of Nauru, with Canberra (Australia’s capital) vowing no asylum seeker arriving by boat would ever be allowed to permanently settle in Australia.
Boris Johnson also revealed that since 2015, the UK has “offered a place to over 185,000 men, women and children seeking refuge, more than any other similar resettlement schemes in Europe”.
According to the UN Refugee Agency, Germany received the highest number of asylum applicants (127,730) in Europe in 2021, followed by France (96,510), while the UK received the fourth-largest number of applicants (44,190).
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