Published on: 04/14/2022 – 12:02 am Modified on: 04/14/2022 – 14:35
Rwanda has signed a controversial deal with London to welcome migrants and asylum seekers of various nationalities from the UK to its soil, Kigali said on Thursday during a visit by UK Home Secretary Priti Patel.
The UK announced on Thursday April 14 a controversial project to send asylum seekers who have arrived illegally on its territory to Rwanda and entrusted patrol of the English Channel to the Royal Navy in hopes of catching illegal immigrants, that don’t stop to discourage the crossing increase.
While Prime Minister Boris Johnson had promised to control immigration, a key issue in the Brexit campaign, the number of very dangerous illegal border crossings tripled in 2021 and is still increasing. London regularly accuses Paris of not doing enough to prevent them.
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As of today (…) anyone entering the UK illegally, as well as those who have entered the UK illegally since January 1st, can be relocated to Rwanda, announced the Conservative leader during a speech at an airport in Kent (southeast of England).
Rwanda “will be able to host tens of thousands of people in the years to come,” he added, saying the east African country is “one of the safest countries in the world, recognized for its reception and integration of migrants”.
This project, which is therefore likely to apply to all illegal immigrants wherever they come from (Iran, Syria, Eritrea…), has provoked outraged reactions from human rights organizations, who denounce its “inhumanity”. The opposition ruled the prime minister was trying to divert attention after being fined in full jail for celebrating a birthday.
An agreement worth 144 million euros
Eager to regain popularity ahead of May’s local elections, Boris Johnson and his government have been scrambling for months to secure deals with third countries where migrants should be sent while they wait for their files to be processed.
Such a measure is already being used by Australia with outlying islands in the Pacific, a much-criticized policy. In addition, Denmark had also considered sending its asylum seekers to African countries.
Under the agreement announced on Thursday, London will initially fund the device with up to £120 million (144 million euros). The Rwandan government has specified that it will offer those admitted the opportunity to “settle permanently in Rwanda” if they “want to.”
“Our compassion may be infinite, but our ability to help people is not,” Boris Johnson said. The British Prime Minister added that “those trying to skip the queue or abuse our system will not have an automatic route to settling in our country but will be returned to a country safe third party or their country in a speedy, humane manner origin”.
Migrants arriving in the UK will no longer be accommodated in hotels but in reception centers like those that exist in Greece, with a first center “opening soon”, announced Boris Johnson.
Discourage candidates from leaving the company
As part of this plan, which complements a major immigration bill currently in parliament and already under criticism by the UN, the government on Thursday entrusted the extra-equipped Navy with the control of illegal crossings of the English Channel. On the other hand, he abandoned his plan to push back the boats entering British waters, a measure which was rejected by the French side.
By sending asylum seekers more than 6,000km from the UK, the government is hoping to discourage the growing number of candidates from making the journey to Britain: 28,500 people made the dangerous crossing in 2021, up from 8,466 in 2020… and just 299 in 2018, according to figures of the Ministry of the Interior.
Amnesty International has slammed a “scandalously ill-conceived idea” that will “cause suffering while wasting vast sums of public money” and also points to the African nation’s “dismal human rights record”.
For Refugee Action Director General Tim Naor Hilton, it is a “cowardly, barbaric and inhumane way to treat people fleeing persecution and war”.
Criticism has flared up even within the Conservative ranks, with MP Tobias Ellwood saying on the BBC it was a “major attempt to divert attention” from Boris Johnson’s backlash in Partygate, those parties that have been in power circles during his imprisonment organized.
With AFP