Asylum seekers | The number of boat refugees landing in Britain decreased last year

to Britain the number of arriving boat refugees decreased by 36 percent last year from 2022. This is what the news agency reports Reuters.

In recent years, a large number of asylum seekers have arrived in Britain, crossing the English Channel illegally in small boats. In 2022, their number rose to a record 45,775 people. In 2023, 29,437 asylum seekers arrived across the Channel.

At the beginning of last year, the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that he intends to stop asylum seekers arriving by boat from entering the country. This was one of his five promises for 2023.

To fight back unauthorized channel crossings The British government has tried to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, located in East Central Africa.

According to the agreement signed by the two countries last year, asylum seekers would also stay in Rwanda if they received a positive asylum decision.

In Britain, however, the Supreme Court has deemed the plan piloted by Sunak to be illegal. It has considered that asylum seekers in Rwanda could be threatened with return to their country of origin. The Supreme Court has also referred to Rwanda's weak human rights situation.

Britain's the government has so far not bowed before the Supreme Court.

After the Supreme Court declared the plan illegal, Britain concluded a new agreement with Rwanda. For the same, it drafted a bill that would declare Rwanda a safe country. In this case, the law could no longer refer to the country's human rights situation.

The law was approved in the lower house of the parliament at the beginning of December by a vote of 313–269.

The law still needs to be approved by the upper house. There, the law may come under fire, as the ruling conservative party does not have a majority in the upper house.

Prime Minister Sunak has hoped that the law would enter into force before the next election.