Internment on barges and swift deportation to Rwanda: The Conservative British government is tightening laws to deter irregular migrants. Is London violating international law?

Any person who enters the country must be immediately declared persona non grata and there must be no right of asylum. First of all, it is irrelevant whether they are refugees from Syria, for example, or people from a country of origin that is considered safe and looking for work.

If Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman have their way, all people arriving on the British coast in small boats via the English Channel should be immediately interned and shortly thereafter deported to Rwanda. There are almost no legal routes into the kingdom for immigrants. On Wednesday, the House of Commons voted in favor of the bill in third reading by a majority of 59 MPs. Before the law can take effect, it still needs to get the approval of the House of Lords.

Strong criticism from the United Nations

The mood heats up. The planned measures do not go far enough, especially for the noisy right wing of the ruling Tory party. In the spotlight: the judges of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Luxembourg. A first deportation flight to Rwanda had been stopped at the last minute. If necessary, hardline Conservatives are demanding that Britain simply abandon the human rights convention. To appease them, the government added more provisions intended to make it more difficult for a court to stop deportations.

However, critics of the bill, including the United Nations, have condemned the move as a violation of international obligations. Under the UN Refugee Convention, which also applies to Great Britain, every persecuted person has the right to seek asylum in a safe country of their choice, regardless of how they got there. The Refugee Council and Barnardo’s estimate that up to 15,000 unaccompanied minors could be detained by British authorities under the new law in the next three years.

Prime Minister Sunak does not deny it. His administration says irregular immigration – once described as an “invasion” by Interior Secretary Braverman – cannot be stopped by strict laws. In the meantime, a barge has even been chartered off the coast of southern England to accommodate hundreds of people.

For conservatives, the high number of immigrants is a sensitive issue

Because Britain has a space problem. Until now, migrants have mainly stayed in hotels, costing more than £6 million a day, according to the government. No receiving camps: Until the country left the EU, it had little to do with unwanted immigration. Consequently, there are no capacities. But since Brexit there has been no return agreement with the EU.

A good 45,000 came to Britain via the English Channel last year, which is significantly less than Germany, for example. But for the Tories, the comparatively high numbers are a touchy subject: They promised Britain would regain control of its own borders with Brexit. Since then, strict immigration rules have been applied to EU citizens. But now thousands of non-EU citizens are crossing the water border. They are drawn by the lax labor regulations, most know the language, and many already have friends and family in the country.

“When people come to you, take care of them”

From now on, anyone who enters the country irregularly must be sent to Rwanda, and settle there if they are granted an asylum claim in the African country. All preparations have been made in Rwanda. As early as the summer of 2022, government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo said the country offered legal support and translation services, as well as adequate housing.

In Rwandan society, the issue is rarely discussed, for fear of reprisals from the authoritarian government. President Paul Kagame has led the country for more than 20 years. He only tolerates opposition up to a point. One of the few who openly criticizes the project is the opposition politician Frank Habineza: “We are against this type of agreement,” he said. “When people come to you, take care of them. We all signed the UN Convention.”

Rwanda is already one of the most densely populated countries. This also seems to be clear to the ruler Kagame. Earlier this year, he threatened refugees from the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo: “We cannot continue to host refugees for whom we will later be responsible in some way,” Kagame said. Internationally, this raised questions about Rwanda’s reliability for a deportation project.

Rwanda is safe, according to the British government. She wants to get the asylum law off the table fast. Because by the time of the 2024 elections, she wants to push through other controversial projects. Sunak wants to deny the right to strike to some employees in systemically important sectors such as the health service or the fire brigade. In another bill, the right to demonstrate will be strengthened to prevent large-scale protests, for example, by climate protectionists. For some critics, such measures are just the tip of the iceberg. The Tories, they say, are undermining British democracy.