Asylum seekers in the UK could now be deported to Rwanda under a new controversial new system that has been blown up by human rights groups around the world as “misguided” and in violation of international obligations.
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson called the plan “a new approach, driven by our shared energy and Brexit freedom,” on Thursday, saying that with the help of the UK, Rwanda will have the potential to resettle “tens of thousands of people. In the coming years.”
Speaking at a joint press conference in the Rwandan capital Kigali on Thursday, UK Home Secretary Priti Patel said people who had moved to Rwanda “would be provided with five years of support training, integration, accommodation, health care, so they could. Stay and succeed.”
Patel also called the program “a new partnership for migration and economic development,” saying the UK “is investing heavily in Rwanda’s economic development.”
Patel stressed that the purpose of the agreement was to improve the asylum system in the UK, which he said dealt with “a combination of real humanitarian and malicious traffickers who make a profit through this program to get their benefits.”
When a reporter asked what the conditions for the migration would be, Patel said “it is very clear that everyone who enters the UK illegally will be considered for resettlement and deportation to Rwanda, I will not disclose certain conditions by number. for reasons. “
Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta said Rwanda was pleased to work with the UK.
Asked if Rwanda has the infrastructure to handle this migration, Biruta said the country has the capacity to accommodate migrants and will invest in new infrastructure to educate and build migrants with the support of the UK.
Biruta added that the program would only be for asylum seekers in the UK and those in the UK, and that they would “choose not to find people from nearby neighbors such as the DRC, Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania.”
‘For sale as property’
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has expressed “strong opposition and concern” about the plan and urged both countries to reconsider.
“People fleeing war, conflict and persecution deserve compassion and compassion. They should not be sold as property and transferred abroad for consideration,” UNHCR Assistant Commissioner High for Protection Gillian Triggs said in a statement.
“UNHCR continues to strongly oppose plans to transfer refugees and asylum seekers to third countries without adequate protection and standards. Such arrangements simply change the responsibilities of the asylum, evade international obligations, and are contrary to the letter and spirit of the Refugee,” said Triggs.
The UNHCR also said that the program would increase the risk and cause refugees to seek alternatives, placing greater pressure on future regions.
“Experience shows that these agreements are extremely costly. They often violate international law. They do not lead to solutions, rather to mass arrests or smuggling,” UNHCR law enforcement chief Larry Bottinick told Britain’s Times Radio. Thursday.
Human Rights Watch strongly condemned the program, issuing a strong statement.
“Rwanda’s shocking record of human rights is well documented,” the newspaper said.
“Rwanda has a well-known history of extrajudicial killings, suspicious death in custody, illegal or illegal detention, torture, and brutal persecution, especially by critics and opponents. fleeing the country, including just four last year, “he said, added,” At a time when the UK people have opened their hearts and homes to the people of Ukraine, the government is choosing to act cruelly.
Amnesty International UK’s Director of Refugee and Immigrant Rights Steve Valdez-Symonds described the program as “not shocking.”
“Relocation – not to mention a person with such a poor human rights record – ‘processing’ of the asylum is the highest level of irresponsibility and shows how far the Government and the facts are now in terms of asylum,” Valdez said. –Symonds said in a statement.
As part of the new plan, the British Royal Navy will take over the Border Force operation on the English Channel “with the intention that no boat coming to the UK can be seen,” Johnson said.
It also allows the UK authorities to prosecute those who come illegally, “with life sentences for anyone who drives boats,” he said.
The English Channel, a small waterway between Britain and France, is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. Refugees and migrants fleeing conflict, persecution and poverty in the poorest or most war-torn countries at the risk of dangerous crossings, often on unsafe ships and the mercy of traffickers, hoping for asylum or economic opportunities in Britain.
Last November, 27 people drowned in icy waters off the coast of France after capsizing a boat carrying migrants bound for Britain, in one of the worst incidents in the English Channel in recent years.