- The policy targets migration across the English Channel in small boats
- Thousands could be sent to Rwanda under Deal-Johnson
- Policy faces legal challenges but is being carried out -PM
- Opposition says movement is ‘extortionate, unfeasible, unethical’
DUNGENESS, England/KIGALI, April 14 – Britain could send tens of thousands of asylum seekers to Rwanda to be resettled, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday, laying out a tougher approach to breaking people-smuggling networks and stemming the flow of migrants through the canal.
Immigration concerns were a major factor in the 2016 Brexit vote and Johnson was under pressure to deliver on his promise to regain control of Britain’s borders, but his plan was quickly criticized by the opposition and charities.
“We must ensure that the only route to asylum in the UK is safe and legal,” Johnson said in a speech in Kent, south-east England, where thousands of migrants in small boats landed on Channel beaches last year.
“Those who try to skip the line or abuse our systems will not find an automatic way to set them up in our country, but will be deported quickly and humanely to a safe third country or their country of origin,” the Conservative Prime Minister said.
Anyone who has entered the UK illegally since January 1 can now be relocated to Rwanda in East Africa, disrupting the business model of people-smuggling gangs, he said.
“The deal we made is unlimited and Rwanda will have the capacity to relocate tens of thousands of people in the years to come,” he said.
‘UNETHICAL’
The plan has been heavily criticized by opposition parties, with Home Secretary Priti Patel’s Labor colleague Yvette Cooper saying it is costly, “unworkable and unethical”.
Concerns have also been raised about Rwanda’s human rights record, something the British government itself took note of last year.
Johnson said Rwanda was “one of the safest countries in the world” but added that the risk of landing in the country would prove a “significant deterrent” over time.
Patel signed the partnership agreement in Kigali on Thursday and presented it at a joint press conference with Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta.
Biruta said Rwanda’s recent history has given him “a deep connection to the plight of those seeking security and opportunity in a new country.” Rwanda has already taken in nearly 130,000 refugees from numerous countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Afghanistan and Libya, he added.
Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire said the country is welcoming but it should resolve its internal problems first.
Johnson said the plan will face legal challenges but said the partnership is “fully compliant” with international legal obligations. The government would initially contribute £120 million (US$158 million).
shaky boats
A government minister said the plan focused on single young men. “This is mainly about male economic migrants,” Welsh Foreign Secretary Simon Hart told Sky News. “There is a different set of problems with women and children.”
Opposition lawmakers said Johnson tried to distract from renewed calls for his resignation after he was fined by police on Tuesday for attending a gathering marking his birthday in June 2020, as a social mingling in the wake of the COVID his government introduced -19 Rules was all but forbidden. Continue reading
Last year more than 28,000 migrants and refugees crossed mainland Europe to the UK. The arrival of migrants on rickety boats has fueled tensions between France and Britain, particularly after 27 migrants drowned when their rubber dinghy was deflated in November. Continue reading
“Around 600 came across the canal yesterday. It could be up to a thousand a day again in just a few weeks,” Johnson said.
The new approach will result in the Royal Navy taking operational command of the Border Force in the English Channel, he said, and Greek-style shelters would open in the UK.
The head of a refugee advocacy group said the plan went against the principle of giving asylum seekers a fair hearing on British soil.
“I find it quite extraordinary that the government is obsessed with control rather than focusing on competence and compassion,” Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, told BBC radio.
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writing by Paul Sandle, Kylie MacLellan and Michael Holden; Edited by Elaine Hardcastle, Catherine Evans, Tomasz Janowski and Gareth Jones