Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby says UK plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda is against God.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, the most senior minister of the Church of England, has criticized the UK government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda to process their asylum claims.
In his Easter Day homily, Justin Welby added his voice to the widespread criticism that the program has sparked, saying: “Our responsibility to subcontract, even in a country striving for success like Rwanda, is the opposite of that nature of God who is Himself took responsibility for our failures”.
Speaking at Canterbury Cathedral in south-east England, Welby said that “the details are for politics and politicians, the principle must stand the judgment of God – and it cannot”.
Welby said sending asylum seekers abroad raises “serious ethical questions”.
Such a move “is contrary to the nature of God,” the Church leader said.
On Tuesday, the UK and Rwanda announced that they had reached an agreement to send some people who stow away in trucks or small boats in the UK to the east African country, where their asylum applications would be processed and possibly successful. they will stay.
The deal – for which the UK has paid Rwanda $158 million – leaves many questions unanswered, including the ultimate cost and the selection of asylum seekers. The UK says children and families with children will not be sent to Rwanda.
“Outrageous breach of international law”
The program has sparked outrage and widespread criticism from refugee and human rights organizations, who have called the plan inhumane, unworkable and a waste of taxpayers’ money.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) condemned the program as a “blatant violation of international law” and “against the letter and spirit of the Refugee Convention”.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party government says the plan will discourage people from making dangerous attempts to cross the English Channel and put people-smuggling gangs out of business.
More than 28,000 migrants crossed the Channel to Britain last year, up from 8,500 in 2020.
Dozens died, including 27 people in November when a single boat capsized.
In unveiling the controversial plan last week, Johnson acknowledged there could be legal challenges from “politically motivated lawyers” who wanted to “frustrate the government”.
He also pledged to do “whatever it takes” to ensure the plan works.
Political opponents accuse Johnson of using the headline-grabbing policy to distract from his political concerns.
Johnson is resisting calls for his resignation after he was fined by police for attending a party at his office in 2020 in violation of his own government’s coronavirus lockdown rules.
The Home Office, which is responsible for implementing Rwanda’s transfer policy, said Britain has settled hundreds of thousands of refugees from around the world. But it argues that Britain’s current resettlement system is “broken” and points to unprecedented global migratory pressures.
Senior Home Office officials had raised concerns about the policy but were overruled by Home Secretary Priti Patel, who said it would be “unwise” to delay a measure that “we believe will reduce illegal migration, save lives.” and ultimately the business model of the smuggling gangs will break”.
Alf Dubs, a Labor Member of the House of Lords who came to Britain as a child refugee in 1939, said the plan was likely “a breach of the 1951 Geneva Conventions on Refugees”.
He said the Lords, the upper chamber of the UK Parliament, would contest the move.