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Granting asylum to people of Rwandan origin “undermines” the government’s claims that Rwanda is safe, the former attorney general said.
I The government said on Thursday that a further 15 Rwandans had been granted asylum in the UK in the last three months of 2023, bringing the total number to 21 since the government signed the controversial deportation deal in April 2022. revealed that it has become.
Since the deal was signed, more asylum seekers have arrived in the UK from Rwanda than people from Rwanda. That number is still zero. And this comes despite the UK government paying Kigali £240m for the partnership so far, with a further £50m due later this year.
Former Conservative attorney general Dominic Grieve said the revelations were “unusual” and undermined Rishi Sunak’s claims that Rwanda had made progress towards improving its human rights record since signing the deal.
“That’s unusual. This suggests that a significant number of people are at risk in Rwanda, not just some special populations,” he said. I.
“You have to ask, in a situation like that, how can it be considered a safe place to send people?
“The government’s argument is, of course, that a treaty trumps everything, but sending people to a country where some people are not safe from persecution by the state. [Rwandan] It undermines the government’s position, by its own admission. It’s completely clear. ”
Sir Alf Dubbs, a Labor Party member who fled the Nazis in his kindergarten pick-up car as a child, said: I: “This leaves another gaping hole in the government’s argument for the Rwanda Bill.
“Understanding how the same country can be considered safe to send refugees, and how it can be considered appropriate to give asylum here to refugees from there, is It’s hard to believe and it’s not logical.”
Imran Hussein, the Refugee Council’s external affairs director, said: “The Rwanda plan is wrong in principle and unworkable in practice. We have a long history of providing people with a fair hearing on our soil. It is completely wrong for the UK government to start outsourcing its international obligations by sending people away on a one-way ticket to enter another asylum system, no matter where they are.
“The fact that Rwanda is currently a country where people are actually fleeing and refugee status has been granted to Rwandan nationals here in the UK is a further cause for concern.”
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 send asylum seekers. Deportation flights to the East African country have not yet taken off.
However, 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.
Mr Sunak insisted in February that he remained “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.”
But the bill faces significant opposition from lawmakers across the political spectrum. In a report in early February, 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.
Activists also say Rwanda remains dangerous for many of its citizens, citing numerous human rights violations in the country in recent years.
According to Amnesty International, bloggers and journalists critical of the Rwandan government continue to face “harassment, intimidation, persecution and illegal detention by authorities.”
A Rwandan who was granted asylum in the UK previously said: I They continue to be threatened and harassed for speaking out against the regime.
A total of 53 Rwandans have been granted asylum in the UK since the beginning of 2013, and 21 have entered the UK since deportation agreements were signed in April 2022. This means that during this period more asylum applications from Rwanda were approved than rejected. Since April 2022, 20 applications have been rejected.
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 Home Office refused to disclose I The reasons for granting asylum to individuals from Rwanda since April 2022 vary, but at least one decision was based on sexual orientation, according to government data.
For privacy reasons, the statistics do not provide specific numbers, ranging from one to four, for the number of people granted asylum based on their sexuality.
Home Office figures released on Thursday showed 62,336 people were granted refugee status or other protection in the UK last year. This is the highest number since records began and double the number from the previous year.
“This cannot continue,” said Suela Braverman, who served as interior minister for most of 2023.
“The Prime Minister must adopt the policies I have championed to prevent this national disaster. We need to put a cap on the overall number,” she said.
“If things continue like this, Britain will become unrecognizable. That’s not what British people, myself included, voted for.”
The Home Office said: ‘A wide range of nationalities apply for asylum in the UK. This includes nationals of our closest neighbors in Europe and other safe countries around the world.
“As part of our response to the Supreme Court ruling, we entered into an agreement with Rwanda to make it clear that individuals who migrated to Rwanda under the partnership will not be returned to an unsafe country.”