The contentious British government proposal to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda was reinforced by 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 risky and unlawful voyages” before she arrived.
A deportation deal with Rwanda, struck last year, was one of the measures the British Conservative government is doing to prevent migrants from entering the U.K. via perilous crossings of the English Channel. Compared to 2020, when 8,500 individuals 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 ($140 million) proposal is bogged down in legal issues. The European Court of Human Rights decided the plan posed “a genuine danger of permanent harm” in June, forcing the U.K. to abruptly postpone the first deportation flight.
Human rights organisations believe that it is cruel to transport individuals more than 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometres) 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 transfer them.
Braverman defended the strategy, saying it would “assist individuals 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 through the specifics of the deportation deal.
The head of the group Freedom from Torture, Sonya Sceats, called the strategy “cash-for-humans.” “scheme.
“Ministers should concentrate on creating safe pathways to the UK and addressing the appalling backlog of asylum claims rather than rushing through this callous and impractical policy, so people fleeing conflict and persecution may rebuild their lives with dignity, “She spoke.
