The controversial plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda was supported by the U.K. government, according to the interior minister of Britain, who arrived in Rwanda on Saturday.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman predicted that the migration plan “would function as a major deterrent against dangerous and unlawful voyages” before she arrived.
A deportation deal with Rwanda, struck last year, was one of the measures the British Conservative government is taking to prevent migrants from entering the U.K. via perilous crossings of the English Channel. Compared to 2020, when 8,500 people arrived in Britain by boat, more than 45,000 people did so in 2022.
According to the plans, some migrants who enter the UK through small boats would be sent via plane to Rwanda, where their applications for asylum would be assessed. Those who were given refuge would remain in Africa rather than go back to Britain.
Yet no one has yet been dispatched to Rwanda, and the $170 million (140m pounds) proposal is bogged down in legal issues. The European Court of Human Rights decided the plan posed “a genuine risk of permanent harm” in June, forcing the U.K. to abruptly cancel the first deportation flight.
Human rights organizations believe that it is cruel to transport individuals more than 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) to a nation they do not choose to reside in. They point to Rwanda’s dismal record on human rights.
A number of asylum applicants from nations such as Iran, Iraq, and Syria were given permission to file court challenges earlier this week in opposition to the British government’s decision to relocate them.
Braverman defended the strategy, saying it would “assist people to reconstruct their life in a new nation” and help Rwanda’s economy by creating more employment and upgrading workers’ abilities.
She will meet with President Paul Kagame and Vincent Biruta, who is her colleague, to go over the specifics of the deportation deal.
According to Sonya Sceats, CEO of the non-profit Freedom from Torture, the strategy is a “cash-for-humans” scheme.
“Instead of pushing through this brutal and ineffective policy, governments should concentrate on creating safe routes to the UK and addressing the terrible backlog of asylum requests, so people fleeing conflict and persecution can rebuild their lives with dignity,” she said.
