The Devastating effects of the Rwanda deal on refugees and human rights in the UK.

An analysis on the dangers and human consequences of this government's plan:

The Home office is to detain refugees all across the UK in a shock Rwanda operation starting tomorrow. I literally feel like we’re being catapulted back into times where Nazis were rounding up Jews and sending them to terrible camps far away after years of vilifying and dehumanisation. Can anyone explain the difference?

‘In November 2023, the Supreme Court found the Government’s policy of removing individuals who enter the UK without authorisation to Rwanda was unlawful.’ This means the UK supreme court did not find removing asylum seekers to a third country unlawful, but only that Rwanda is currently not a safe country to send people to. The government’s response to this ruling was to pass a bill that established Rwanda as a safe country which they believe will override legal challenges. The passing of the Rwanda bill is placing the UK in breach of international law, and this is a slippery slope from where there is no return.

The UK has a proud record on human rights, and each year we celebrate and reflect on our great contribution to providing safety for refugee children from the kinder transport during the second world war. We are also critical of other countries’ human rights abuses, such as the persecution of Uighurs in China or the deadly silencing of opponents by the Iranian regime. However the overwhelming evidence of human rights breached with this bill has not stopped our government from pressing on.

The consequences of the Rwanda bill on vulnerable people who have come to the UK in search of protection will be absolutely devastating. This week we will start seeing people being called up to sign in at the home office and we will see surprise home or school visits to round people up. “They will be immediately transferred to detention centres, which have already been prepared for the operation, and held to be put on flights to Rwanda” (The Guardian). The term ‘razzia’ keeps coming to my mind. What will happen in reality is that people will do anything to avoid the authorities and live under the radar, making them prone to abuse and labour exploitation, sex work, extreme poverty, squalid living conditions and an increase in self harm and suicides.

What will happen to the people being deported to Rwanda? At the same time as the Government was arguing Rwanda is a safe place to send asylum seekers for processing, four Rwandans were granted refugee status in the UK, over “well-founded” fears of persecution. Human Rights Watch and other major actors such as Amnesty have reported that a number of systematic human rights violations continue to take place in Rwanda. The ruling party continues to target and silence anyone who politically opposes the party. Several high profile critics have been arrested, and there are also cases of enforced disappearances and suspicious deaths of government opponents. Arbitrary detention, ill-treatment and torture are commonplace in detention facilities. There are also many cases of detention and mistreatment of street children, sex workers and marginalisation of anyone in the LGBTQ+ community (something which many people come to the UK for to in order to find protection). Furthermore, as highlighted by the Supreme Court, citizens of certain war torn countries, including Afghanistan and Syria, have a 100% rejection rate in Rwanda, while the same nationalities are nearly always recognised as refugees in the UK.

This scheme will cost the taxpayer an estimated £1.8 million per person for the first 300 people arriving to Rwanda, money that would be much better spent by investing in people who have come to the UK, and help them rebuild their lives so they can become the valuable members of society they wish to be.

We have seen from all ‘deterrence methods’ across Europe, that refugees are not put off by the challenges ahead because they still have hope that their future is better than the persecution or war-torn countries they are leaving behind. People will often come to the UK because they have family here, or they may have linguistic and cultural ties to our country. A home office report found in an interview that none of the reasons for refugees for coming to the UK were related to asylum policy. There are no guarantees this policy will deter people from coming in the future.

Apart from a limited resettlement scheme for Ukrainians, Hong Kong citizens and Afghans, there are no other legal routes in which people can apply for refugee protection without being smuggled into the UK first. This means a large number of people fleeing war and persecution have no choice but to do so by means of irregular channel crossings in order to ask for asylum, as is every persons’ right under the 1951 Refugee Convention agreement which the UK is also a part of.

Now is the time to rise. We will remember the actions of this despicable government in the upcoming elections Sunak. RWANDA DEPORTATIONS- NOT IN MY NAME!