Britain moves immigrants out of the country

UK Parliament approves controversial law

The UK Parliament passes a bill to relocate asylum seekers to Rwanda, a country in Central Africa.

The government of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson signed an agreement with Rwanda back in 2022 on the practice of migrants arriving in the UK to be eventually relocated to that country.

B. Johnson has previously said that Rwanda is a safe place, but this plan will discourage migrants from coming to the UK illegally^[1].

However, last year, a UK court ruled the plan illegal and ruled that the agreement did not remove the risk of the Rwandan authorities returning the resettled migrants to the countries from which they fled.

In order to circumvent this court ruling, the government of the current Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has drafted a bill to enshrine in law that Rwanda is a safe country for displaced migrants.

The new law, which was approved by the British Parliament, was already passed by the House of Commons at the beginning of the year, but until now the House of Lords, where the ruling Conservative Party does not have a majority, has repeatedly added amendments to the proposal, which have been opposed by the government. Now that it has been approved, the Bill could be signed into law later this week, when it will be formally approved by King Charles III.

Under the new law, all asylum seekers who enter the UK illegally will be deported to Rwanda. Prime Minister Sunak has promised that the first such flight will take place as early as July, and that shortly thereafter, "a wave of deportations will begin".

According to the British government, the law is aimed at preventing life-threatening cross-Channel smuggling and at dismantling people-smuggling networks. Various activist and human rights groups have condemned the UK's decision, pointing out that migrants will be pushed into even greater danger^[2].

Courts and human rights groups criticize the British government's decision

Rwanda is often cited as one of the most stable countries in Africa. However, the country's President, Paul Kagame, rules the country with a firm fist, fomenting a climate of fear and oppression.

This is why the UK Government's plan to send illegal migrants specifically to Rwanda has been widely criticized by both human rights groups and cross-party legislators, including some members of Sunak's party.

They argue that the decision is simply incompatible with the UK's obligations under international human rights law.

Indeed, as recently as June 2022, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) stopped the first flight of migrants to Rwanda, and the UK Supreme Court ruled that the deportation scheme was illegal on the grounds that the government could not guarantee the safety of the migrants on their arrival in Rwanda.

The evidence was based on Rwanda's poor human rights record, as well as information on systematic weaknesses in the country's asylum application procedures.

The UK court noted that Rwanda had a high rejection rate for asylum applications from certain countries in known conflict zones^[3].

Moreover, Rwanda had already cooperated with Israel in a similar migrant scheme, but the idea was not successful.

However, the UK government is now promising to implement security procedures and Prime Minister Sunak has promised that the first migrant flights to Central Africa will start within 10-12 weeks. In the run-up to the final passage of the Bill, Sunak said the government had already chartered planes for deportation flights, increased detention facilities, hired more migration case handlers and freed up court space for appeals.

This urgency on the part of the Prime Minister is not accidental. Sunak is trailing in the polls ahead of the local elections in the autumn, and he is building his Conservative Party re-election campaign on this very plan to curb migration, which appeals to a large part of the party's voters.

On the other hand, the cost of illegal migration also makes it necessary to hurry. Deporting migrants to Africa is expensive, but processing their applications costs even more money.

The National Audit Office, which oversees public spending in the UK, has estimated that deporting the first 300 migrants will cost the UK £540 million, or almost £2 million per person. The country currently spends more than £3 billion a year on processing asylum claims, while the cost of accommodating migrants awaiting a decision is around £8 million a day.

Migrants have also been resettled in Rwanda from Israel

Interestingly, Israel has also previously been interested in the idea of resettling migrants in Rwanda. The only difference is that under the Israeli voluntary departure scheme, the flight to Rwanda was optional, whereas the UK scheme is mandatory. Moreover, unlike the British, who have publicly announced their scheme, Israel has never had any formal agreement with Rwanda.

Between 2013 and 2018, before the collusion was terminated, some 4 000 Israeli-based asylum seekers from Eritrea and Sudan were sent to Rwanda and Uganda.

Many of these migrants later told the international media that they were met by a local man at the airport in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, and then, upon meeting other people, were stripped of their documents, taken to a hotel that was guarded and from which they were forbidden to leave. All the migrants were forced to pay for these "services".

The Rwandan government itself had argued that the arrangement with the United Kingdom is completely different from that with Israel, saying that the latter program was abandoned when it was found not to work and that the current scheme has been upgraded with newer requirements and a greater emphasis on protecting people and their rights^[4].

The UK Home Office also claims that the program's implementation will be different from that of Israel and will be closely supervised, monitored, and, if necessary, updated.

"Our world-leading and innovative migration partnership with Rwanda will be overseen by a specially created joint committee to ensure that those traveling dangerously to the UK are resettled in Rwanda and make a new life there," said ministry spokespeople.

The debate on migration continues in Europe

While the United Kingdom is still in the process of implementing its plans to relocate migrants to Rwanda, the European Union (EU) is on a different track. In early April, the European Parliament (EP) adopted stricter rules on migration and asylum.

The new EU legislation is based on a mandatory solidarity system, which requires all EU Member States to take some responsibility for processing asylum applications. If an EU Member State is unwilling to accept asylum seekers, it must provide alternative assistance, such as financial contributions to a support fund. Member States that experience an increase in asylum applications can request that asylum seekers be redistributed to other EU countries.

All irregularly staying persons will be referred to the border asylum procedure and will be considered inadmissible while it is ongoing.

The European Council has allocated €2 billion to implement the pact. The EU funds will be allocated according to the needs of the Member States, taking into account the specificities of the countries and the challenges they face.

The EU will have to set a minimum annual resettlement rate of 30,000 persons and a minimum financial contribution of €600 million.