LONDON — Britain’s Conservative government has struck a deal with Rwanda to send some asylum-seekers thousands of miles away to the East African country, a move that opposition politicians and refugee groups condemned as inhumane, unworkable and a waste of public money, AP reported.
Home Secretary Priti Patel visited the Rwandan capital, Kigali, on Thursday to sign what the two countries called an “economic development partnership.” The plan will see some people who arrive in Britain as stowaways on trucks or in small boats across the English Channel picked up by the UK government and flown 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometres) to Rwanda, apparently for good.
Migrants have long used northern France as a launching point to reach Britain, either by hiding on trucks or ferries, or — increasingly since the coronavirus pandemic shut down other routes in 2020 — in dinghies and other small boats organized by smugglers. More than 28,000 people entered the U.K. on small boats last year, up from 8,500 in 2020. Dozens have died, including 27 people in November when a single boat capsized.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Thursday that action was needed to stop “vile people smugglers (who) are abusing the vulnerable and turning the Channel into a watery graveyard.”
The Rwanda plan faces hurdles both in Britain’s Parliament and in the courts. Johnson’s Conservative government has introduced a tough new immigration bill that would make it more difficult for people who enter the country by unauthorized routes to claim asylum and would allow asylum-seekers to be screened abroad. It has not yet been approved by Parliament, with the House of Lords seeking to dilute some of its most draconian provisions.
Opposition politicians accused the Conservative government of trying to distract attention from a scandal over government parties that breached pandemic lockdown rules. Johnson this week was among dozens of people fined by police over the parties, making him the first British leader ever found to have broken the law while in office.
He is resisting calls from opponents, and from some lawmakers in his own party, to resign.
Labour Party lawmaker Lucy Powell said the Rwanda plan might please some Conservative supporters and grab headlines, but was “unworkable, expensive and unethical.”
“I think this is less about dealing with small boats and more about dealing with the prime minister’s own sinking boat,” Powell told the BBC.
