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A further 15 people from Rwanda have been granted asylum in the UK, while the government insists the UK is a “safe” third country to send asylum seekers to.
I According to an analysis of Ministry of Interior statistics, 14 Rwandans were granted refugee status in the last three months of 2023, including six children under the age of 18. Another Rwandan was given “other leave permission” to remain in the UK. Usually granted on human rights grounds.
come later I The government revealed last month that six Rwandans were granted asylum in the UK between April 2022 and October 2023, when the government signed a deportation agreement.
The latest figures, covering the period October to December 2023, bring the total up to 21.
This means that since the deal was signed, more asylum seekers have arrived in the UK from Rwanda than there have been from Rwanda, but that number remains zero. This comes despite the UK government paying Kigali £240m for the partnership to date, with a further £50m expected later this year.
experts said I The fact that the UK is granting asylum to Rwandans “fatally undermines” the government’s controversial claim that Rwanda is a safe third country for asylum seekers arriving in the UK.
Former Conservative Attorney General Dominic Grieve said: “Obviously, if you grant asylum to people from Rwanda, it raises the question of whether Rwanda is a safe country, because Rwanda is clearly not safe for those people…It’s simple.”
Sir Alfred Dubbs, a Labor Party leader and former child refugee who fled the Nazis, said: “This is extremely important because it confirms what the Supreme Court has said and renders the bill to declare Rwanda safe meaningless. “It’s important,” he said.
“It undermines the whole logic of the thing. It makes the government’s efforts to override the Supreme Court pointless.”
In April 2022, former home secretary Priti Patel signed an agreement with Rwanda that would send the majority of asylum seekers arriving in the UK by small boat to Kigali, where their claims would be processed. If successful, they would be granted asylum in Rwanda rather than the UK as part of the UK government’s bid to tackle the small boat crisis and reduce immigration.
The UK Supreme Court declared the policy illegal in November, saying Rwanda was not a safe country to which asylum seekers could be transferred. Deportation flights to the East African country have not yet taken off.
Rishi Sunak insisted earlier this month that he remains “absolutely committed” to Rwanda policy. In a Q&A with GB News, the Prime Minister said he was confident it would act as an effective “deterrent” to deter people from entering the UK illegally.
He previously said the government “acted quickly to resolve the issues raised by the Supreme Court, proving that Rwanda is not just a safe country, but a modern and prosperous country.”
The prime minister wants the Rwanda Safety Bill to override the Supreme Court’s ruling and unilaterally declare Rwanda a safe third country. The bill was passed by the House of Commons on January 17 and is now moving through the House of Lords.
But it faces significant backlash from parties across the political spectrum. In a report earlier this month, the cross-party Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, a group of MPs and MPs, said the bill was “fundamentally inconsistent” with the UK’s human rights obligations.
Campaigners also argue that Rwanda remains a dangerous situation for many of its citizens, citing numerous human rights violations in the country in recent years.
A total of 53 Rwandans have been granted asylum in the UK since the beginning of 2013. During this period, more asylum applications from Rwanda were approved than rejected, with 20 rejected since April 2022.
This exceeds the number of people granted asylum from many other countries on Britain’s list of safe third countries at the time, including Malawi, Liberia, Mongolia, South Africa and Macedonia. Zero asylum seekers came to the UK from the EU over the same period.
Asylum is granted where there are “good grounds for fear of persecution” in one’s home country “on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group.”
The Ministry of Home Affairs has not disclosed I It is unclear why individuals were granted asylum from Rwanda since April 2022, but at least one decision was based on sexual orientation, according to government data. For privacy reasons, the statistics do not reveal a specific figure, if between one and four, for the number of people granted asylum based on sexuality.
The Home Office said the Rwanda plan was a “bold and innovative” solution to “big global challenges”.
“Rwanda is clearly a safe country and is taking great care in supporting refugees,” it said in a statement. “We have hosted more than 135,000 asylum seekers and are ready to help people relocate and rebuild their lives.”