Deporting asylum seekers: Britain is sacrificing human rights for its Rwandan plan

Deportation of asylum seekers
Britain is sacrificing human rights for its Rwanda project

December 6, 2023, 8:20 pm

A plan to send London asylum seekers to Rwanda immediately upon their arrival violates human rights, the Supreme Court has ruled. Prime Minister Sunak wants to suspend the Human Rights Act in the case of Rwanda in order to free the migrants in this way.

The British government apparently does not want human rights to stop its controversial plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda. Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said a new bill would rule out key parts of Britain’s human rights law requiring human rights to be applied to Rwanda. This “can’t stop our project,” Sunak said.

The proposed legislation aims to declare Rwanda a safe third country. The British government wants asylum seekers who arrive irregularly in the country, regardless of their origin, immediately flown to the East African country. They should apply for asylum there; A return to Great Britain was out of the question.

The Supreme Court in London also halted the program in Rwanda citing constitutional flaws. The Supreme Court emphasized the risk of asylum seekers not receiving fair treatment in the East African country. Among other things, the court cited reports by the UN refugee agency UNHCR. With the new law, the government hopes to do away with reservation. Prime Minister Sunak is under considerable pressure from the right to significantly reduce migration.

An unusual quote from Home Secretary James Wise on the first page of the draft caused a stir. It said he could not say whether the law was compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Sunak’s right-wing Conservative Party is demanding that Great Britain withdraw from the ECHR so that international courts can no longer stop the project. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg stopped the only planned flight with asylum seekers to Rwanda at the last minute with a last-minute injunction.