UK announces controversial plan to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda
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Loading... - Megan Miller
- 15 Apr 2022
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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the scheme an "innovative approach, driven by our shared humanitarian impulse and made possible by Brexit freedoms," on Thursday, saying that with the UK's help, Rwanda will have the capacity to resettle "tens of thousands of people in the years ahead."
Speaking at a joint news conference in the Rwandan capital Kigali on Thursday, UK Home Secretary Priti Patel said that people relocated to Rwanda "will be given the support including up to five years of training, integration, accommodation, health care, so that they can resettle and thrive."
Patel also called the plan a "joint new migration and economic development partnership," saying that the UK is "making substantial investment in the economic development of Rwanda."
Patel insisted the aim of the agreement was to improve the UK asylum system, which she said has faced "a combination of real humanitarian crises and evil people smugglers profiteering by exploiting the system for their own gains."
When a reporter asked what the criteria would be for relocation, Patel said "we are very clear that everyone who enters the UK illegally will be considered for resettlement and being brought over to Rwanda, I'm not going to divulge specific criteria for a number of reasons."
Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta said Rwanda was pleased to work with the UK.
When asked whether Rwanda has the infrastructure to host the influx, Biruta said the country has the capacity to receive migrants and will invest in new infrastructure to educate and house migrants with the UK's support.
Biruta added that the program will only be for people seeking asylum in the UK and who are in the UK, and that they would "prefer not to receive people from immediate neighbors like the DRC, Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania."
'Traded like commodities'
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) expressed "strong opposition and concerns" about the plan and urged both countries to reconsider.
"People fleeing war, conflict and persecution deserve compassion and empathy. They should not be traded like commodities and transferred abroad for processing," UNHCR's Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Gillian Triggs said in a statement. Read More…
