The British Home Office continues its brutal policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda. Two months after announcing its Migration and Economic Development Partnership Agreement with the East African state – under which people arriving illegally in the UK are to be sent back 7,200km away to that their asylum application is “processed” – the first flight is due to leave on June 14.
Under the agreement, anyone deemed to have arrived “irregularly” in the UK since January 1, 2022 can be relocated to Rwanda. Once in Rwanda, if an asylum claim is found to be legitimate, the person will only be allowed to stay in Rwanda, not the UK. Otherwise, she will be deported to a third country.
On June 1, a statement from the Ministry of Interior said it had begun to “issue official letters of instruction of removal to those expected to travel to Rwanda.” Among “those relocated there” are “people who have made dangerous, unnecessary and illegal journeys, including crossing the English Channel…”
Under Home Secretary Priti Patel’s new plan for immigration, tens of thousands of people are expected to be airlifted to Rwanda and possibly other states.
The thefts will take place despite being branded illegal by human rights groups.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is due to release its latest report two days after the UK-Rwanda flight departed on the number of people who suffered forced displacement around the world [article en anglais]. He estimates that the total number of asylum seekers worldwide already stands at 100 million. UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said the Nationality and Borders Act under which the Johnson government crafted its Rwandan policy “undermines the ability of those at risk to seek refuge in the UK and weakens protection refugees around the world.
None of this disturbs the government. The Home Office statement cited Patel’s threat that, “while knowing that attempts will now be made to thwart the process and delay removals, I will not be deterred from doing so…” The Guardian noted that the first flight to Rwanda is expected to coincide with a trip a week later by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to Kigali for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Patel’s comments followed deliberately inflammatory comments from Johnson, who told the DailyMail that he was ready to “carry this fight […] We have a huge diagram of tasks to do to achieve this, with leftist lawyers”.
Steven Galliver-Andrew, a lawyer working in immigration law, told the BBC last week that the government had set a June 14 deportation date, but “the law that allows the government to do not appear to come into effect until June 28, 2022”.
At least 100 people have received letters informing them that they are being sent to Rwanda. The charity Care4Calais said this week that it was “working with 80 out of 100 people in detention centers who have been given ‘notices of intent’ to return them to Rwanda. Seventeen have received notices that their “deportation” (the term used by the group) is imminent, 10 of which were notified of the June 14 date. They are all in detention centers and they are all very scared”.
A Care4Calais article notes: “Refugees will not be safe. Rwanda is a dictatorship that imprisons, tortures and murders people who speak out against the government. International human rights groups, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the UNHCR, have expressed serious concerns. It would be impossible to ensure the safety of the people the UK intends to send there.”
Such is the fear of being sent to Rwanda that a group of asylum seekers detained at Brook House near London’s Gatwick airport began a five-day hunger strike which ended on June 3.
In their deportation letters, which are 20 pages long and available only in English, those selected for deportation to Rwanda are informed that they have no right to appeal because of their manner of deportation. arriving in Britain by a route deemed illegal. the Guardian listed the different nationalities of those facing deportation, including groups from war-torn countries including Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan and Iraq. The UK will help return them to the war zones they fled. The letter states: “You have the option of leaving the UK voluntarily. However, if you are expelled, it will be in Rwanda”.
Patel, aided by tabloid newspapers and other media spewing venom for years at immigrants who “invade” the UK via the English Channel, promised her bill would end the crossings, allowing Britain Brittany to “control” its borders. The reality is that its deportation system will be used against anyone the government wants to deport. the Guardian noted: “A significant number of those in the first group of 100 who were targeted for relocation to Rwanda are from Sudan.
“The Sudanese are not the largest group of nationalities to arrive in the UK on small boats in the first quarter of this year where they ranked seventh with 137 arrivals between January and March this year. They have a 92% success rate of their asylum applications.”
Signifying how brutal Rwandan politics are, the Interior Ministry’s promise that only single men would be deported to Rwanda turns out to be a lie. According to Care4Calais, “Two of the boys [qui doivent être transportés par avion au Rwanda] say they are only 16 years old. The Home Office says they are 23 and 26, so it is essential that proper age assessments are carried out before any deportation. A 16-year-old saw his brother killed in front of him when his village was attacked in Sudan. He escaped and returned later to find the whole village destroyed.
the Guardian quoted Daniel Sohege, Campaigns Director for Love146 UK, who said: “We are seeing 14 year olds being wrongly rated as 23. The number of children we have seen being given birthdates of 1999 when they are clearly under the age of 18 is very concerning and puts young people at risk.”
For several weeks, and again after surviving a no-confidence vote against his leadership on Monday, Johnson insisted the government “move on” in order to implement its Brexit agenda. It hinges on an escalating assault on working class jobs, wages, working conditions and pensions, to be enforced, as immigration policy reveals, by tearing up democratic rights.
Rwandan policy and the overall anti-immigration agenda are supported by all factions of the Conservative Party, including MPs posing as new moralizing activists who want Johnson out.
The defense of immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers is criminalized. Next month, three people are due to stand trial after having prevented [article en anglais] Last year, as part of a huge crowd, Glasgow police led away two immigrants for deportation. The Scottish Public Prosecution Service said they are due to appear in court on August 3 and 4. In a petition, the ‘Kenmure Street Three’ demand that the public order offense charges against them be dropped: ‘While resisting this alongside thousands of others, we have been brutalized, locked up and are now face a repressive and grueling legal process. We shouldn’t have to go through this.”
The enforced disappearance of people thousands of miles away in a country that was the scene of full-scale genocide less than two decades ago is just the latest salvo in the government’s assault on democratic norms. The government announced its intention in the Queen’s Speech in May to scrap the Human Rights Act 1998, which incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). A new bill of rights aims to revise the law. Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said in March that among the “problematic areas” she will address are “challenges related to the deportation of foreign offenders”.
(Article published in English on June 7, 2022)
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