The first flight scheduled by the British government to send asylum seekers to Rwanda would leave on June 14, despite criticism. Prime Minister Boris Johnson assured that his administration will not be “intimidated or embarrassed” and will continue with its plan to send migrants arriving in the United Kingdom through irregular routes to that African nation. Only a few people may be boarding amid a series of last-minute legal challenges.
The United Kingdom defies legal action and continues with its controversial plan to deport immigrants who have arrived in its territory irregularly to Rwanda.
The British Government maintains the first expulsion flight for this Tuesday, June 14, despite the fact that the number of foreigners on board would be drastically reduced.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson ratified the decision just hours after the Court of Appeals refused to stop the deportations, following the lawsuit filed by lawyers for human rights groups and activists who are handling the case.
But after some affected successfully sued and argued that they should not be sent to the African nation for health or human rights reasons, the number of people ordered to leave the country on Tuesday fell from 37 to just 7.
Still, London warned that anyone who prevents their departure now through last-minute legal action would be put on later flights.
“We are not going to be deterred or embarrassed in any way by some of the criticism that has been leveled at this policy, some of it from slightly unexpected quarters, we are going to go ahead and deliver,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Tuesday during a meeting with his cabinet.
A “catastrophic” plan
The British authorities’ plan has horrified political opponents, charities and religious leaders who say it is inhumane.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, called it “catastrophic” and Church of England leaders denounced it as “immoral and shameful”. In addition, reports in the British press indicate that Prince Charles privately described this initiative as “appalling”.
The Johnson Administration struck a £120 million, or about $148 million, deal with Rwanda to send some migrants, who arrived on British soil irregularly, by crossing the English Channel in small boats from other points in Europe and after departing from nations in Africa and the Middle East.
More than 130 people have received deportation notices. Of them, 37 were initially scheduled to be deported on June 14. Civil organizations point out that the list includes citizens who fled from countries with a crude human rights situation such as Afghanistan, Syria, Iran and Iraq.
Johnson defends himself and suggests eventual withdrawal of the European Convention on Human Rights
The UK government justifies that its strategy is necessary to crush people smuggling networks and stop the flow of migrants who risk their lives at the Canal crossings.
“There will be people on this flight and if they are not on this flight, they will be on the next flight because we are determined to break the model of the terrible human traffickers,” Foreign Secretary Liz told the local network ‘Sky News’. Truss.
Boris Johnson says the lawsuits against his move undermine the government’s attempts to support safe and legal routes to his country.
But Johnson went further and in an interview with the local chain ‘ITV NEWS’ suggested that his country could withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights to promote deportations to Rwanda.
“Will some laws need to be changed to help us (avoid legal challenges) as we move forward? It may be,” the premier said.
“Immigrants will be free. This is not a prison. It’s like a home,” said Ismail Bakina, the manager of Hope Hostel, the hostel near the Rwandan capital where the first group of expelled from the country is scheduled to be transferred. United Kingdom, with a capacity to accommodate 100 people.
London initiative would not stop migrant routes to Europe
This is not the first time that Rwanda has welcomed asylum seekers from a third country and many of those affected say that they do not give up trying again to travel to a country in Europe, the United States or Canada.
Rwanda, the African Union and the United Nations refugee agency agreed in 2019 that migrants held in squalid Libyan detention centers could be voluntarily evacuated to Rwanda on United Nations-operated flights.
Peter Nyuon is one of them. The man fled his native South Sudan after his father and grandfather were killed in combat. Trying to reach Europe, he was trapped in a Libyan detention center for a year before the United Nations transferred him to Gashora camp in eastern Rwanda.
Nyuon said that conditions in Rwanda are much better than in Libya, but that he and many other migrants sent there are determined to reach Europe. “That is my goal,” he assured.
Several more of the refugees there interviewed by Reuters agreed with Nyuon.
“I left Eritrea because there is a dictatorship. I want to go to Europe because there is freedom,” said Teame Goitom.
Previous experiences have shown that actions such as that of the United Kingdom would not put an end to irregular migratory routes, especially since in the background there is a serious risk to the lives of people fleeing their countries of origin, which is why they are willing to try as many times possible.
According to the authorities, more than 600 people out of a total of 1,000 have been resettled from Gashora, Rwanda to other countries such as Canada, Sweden, Norway, France, Finland and Belgium.
Israel attempted a London-like immigrant transfer program since 2014, sending mainly Sudanese and Eritrean asylum seekers to Rwanda and Uganda. But most left soon after and headed north again, sometimes using smugglers, the International Refugee Rights Initiative found in 2015.
The UN said the British government’s decision is “totally wrong” and cannot be compared to the action the organization took three years ago. He explained that the agreement with which he transferred those affected from Libya to Rwanda was reasonable because it protected migrants from torture, sexual violence and indefinite detention.
According to figures from the Johnson Administration, in 2021 more than 28,500 people were detected arriving in the UK on small boats and dozens more continue to arrive.
A full hearing is scheduled for July to determine the legality of the policy as a whole.
With Reuters and local media
#ratifies #migrant #deportation #flight #Rwanda