Photo credit, Getty
- Author, Aaron Akinyemi
- Role, bbc news
The British government has passed the controversial Rwanda Bill, which will allow some asylum seekers arriving in the UK to be sent to Rwanda to have their claims processed.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the policy would come into effect soon and flights to Rwanda would be available in July.
Under the five-year deal, asylum seekers could be granted refugee status and allowed to remain in the UK if their application is successful.
If unsuccessful, asylum seekers could apply to settle in Rwanda on other grounds or seek asylum in another country. Furthermore, no asylum seeker would be able to apply to return to the UK.
Ministers said the plan would discourage people from reaching the UK in small boats crossing the English Channel.
The first flight to Rwanda was scheduled to depart in June 2022 but was cancelled following legal challenges.
In November 2023, the UK Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Rwanda’s programme was unlawful, arguing that genuine refugees risked being returned to their home countries where they could be harmed.
This is contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits torture and inhuman treatment.
Concerns have also been raised about Rwanda's poor human rights record.
The UK Supreme Court ruling cites evidence, including a High Court ruling, that Rwanda has recently been responsible for killings of people critical of its government. British police have therefore warned Rwandan citizens living in the UK against “credible plans” by the Rwandan state to kill them.
In response to the Supreme Court's ruling that the British government's plan for Rwanda was unlawful, the government published a new treaty with Rwanda, providing additional safeguards, and introduced the new Bill, which states that Rwanda is a safe country for asylum seekers.
Photo credit, bbc news
Will the program be extended to other countries?
The UK could strike similar deals to process asylum seekers in Botswana, Ivory Coast, Costa Rica and Armenia, according to a report in The Times newspaper, which says it has obtained leaked documents from officials.
Progress appears to have stalled in these four countries, which were high on the list of potential host locations. This week Costa Rica ruled out accepting migrants expelled by the UK.
“We have informed the United Kingdom that Costa Rica will not receive any foreign immigrants,” President Rodrigo Chaves wrote on the social media platform X.
A spokesman for the Armenian embassy in the UK also denied that the country was considering signing a similar deal with Rwanda.
“While we maintain extensive political dialogue with the UK, there have been no substantive or technical discussions on the issue raised in the Times,” the spokesperson told inews.co.uk.
A spokesman for the Paraguayan embassy in the UK also said reports of a possible deal were “false”.
The Foreign Ministry also considered other South American states, including Paraguay, Peru, Brazil and Ecuador, the Times reported.
African Denials
In 2022, the Ghanaian government categorically denied being involved in talks with the UK over plans to send asylum seekers for processing.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration wishes to state categorically that Ghana has not entered into any discussions with the United Kingdom on such a project and has no intention of considering such an operation in the 'future,'” the ministry said in a press release.
“The government’s position has not changed and the ministry advises ignoring any publication suggesting otherwise.
Several African countries have also been placed on a “reserve list”, including Cape Verde, Senegal, Tanzania and Sierra Leone.
The Migration Policy Institute reported that EU member states were also considering former Soviet states such as Moldova and Georgia as potential targets for a similar programme agreed with Rwanda.
fake news
According to a report in the British newspaper The Sun, Albania was also a destination for processing asylum seekers arriving in the UK.
However, Albanian Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Olta Xhaçka quickly denied the claim, calling it false information.
The fake news spread in the British media about an “offshore platform in the Balkans”, specifically in Albania to “stop migrants crossing the English Channel from France”, is “very shameful,” he said in a press release published on X.
“Albania will proudly host 4,000 Afghan refugees out of goodwill, but it will never be a centre for the anti-immigration policies of larger, richer countries. We have asked our embassy in the UK to demand a retraction of this false information.”
In what other countries has a similar system been implemented?
Between 2013 and 2018, around 4,000 Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers living in Israel were sent to Rwanda and Uganda under a secret “voluntary departure” programme.
Unlike the British programme, which is compulsory, the Israeli initiative was presented as an option, although some asylum seekers told the BBC they did not feel they had any choice.
Bahabelom Mengesha, an Eritrean sent by Israel to Rwanda, said he was given the choice between being sent home, going to an immigration detention center or taking $3,500 and a one-way flight to Rwanda.
Another difference between the UK and Israeli asylum regimes is that while the UK has been very public about its official agreement with Rwanda, Israel has never had an official agreement with Rwanda.
The BBC spoke to several asylum seekers who were returned from Rwanda to Israel and found that they have all since settled in Europe.
“The fact that we were sent to Rwanda did not prevent us from reaching Europe,” Mengesha said.
The Israeli program has since been abandoned.
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