The United Kingdom in April announced that it is investing more than £120 million in Rwanda to provide “safe and legal routes” to asylum, with the aim of bringing an end to dangerous practices of people smuggling. While well intentioned, this partnership is sure to be a disaster.
The world-leading partnership with Rwanda that the UK signed April 14 would offshore some asylum seekers to the East African country. Under the new program, migrants will process their asylum claims in Rwanda, and receive support to settle and start new lives there.
It’s an ill-conceived move for many reasons, but chief among them is a simple fact: Rwanda is not safe.
A cruel regime
Dominated by two decades of Paul Kagame’s presidency, Rwanda has a long record of constitutional and human rights violations and abuses. These include unlawful or arbitrary killings by the government, forced disappearance and torture, arbitrary detention, and political imprisonment, to name a few.
Most of the people who risk channel crossings are refugees. An analysis by The Refugee Council of channel crossings and asylum outcomes between January 2020 and June 2021 revealed that 91% of people who traveled by boat across the Channel came from 10 countries where human rights abuses and persecution were common. These were Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Sudan, Vietnam, Kuwait, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Yemen.
Around the world, people every day make the tough and often dangerous decision to leave their homes in search of better, safer lives. Some leave villages for cities. Others leave cities for new countries, or for settlements. Wherever they go, they are looking for safety.
Those who arrive in Rwanda may be in for a shock. The Kagame regime has been accused of human right abuses on more than one occasion. A World Human Rights Watch Report from 2020 showed how the government continues to threaten, illegally detain, and repress critics. In 2018, the Rwandan Police fired live ammunition at unarmed protesting refugees outside the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in Karongi District, Western Province, leaving at least eight people dead. Between February and May of the same year, the Rwandan police also arrested more than 60 refugees. The detainees were charged with crimes that include participating in illegal demonstrations, violence against public authorities, rebellion, and disobeying law enforcement. Some were also charged with “spreading false information with intent to create a hostile international opinion against the Rwandan state.”
In a 2021 report on Human Rights Practices, the U.S. Department of State cited “significant human rights issues” in Rwanda, including arbitrary deprivation of life, politically motivated killings, disappearances, torture, and other cruel, inhuman conditions.
As recently as July 2021, Britain condemned Rwanda for failing to investigate human rights violations. And only weeks before London’s decision, Refugee Minister Lord Harrington said there was no possibility of migrants being sent there.
What changed? And what makes the UK think migrants will be so keen to set their sights on Rwanda?
Let’s not forget what a disaster it was when Israel secretly deported around 4,000 Africans to Rwanda and Uganda in 2014 and 2017: Nearly all the deported people escaped and embarked on perilous trips to Europe.
Violating international principles
This move by the UK, under international law, violates the principle of non-refoulement — that is, the prohibition against transferring anyone to a place where they would be at real risk of persecution and other serious human-rights violations, or where they would not be protected against such a transfer later.
On top of all that, it is also extremely expensive. The government is paying billions of taxpayers’ pounds to fund an ineffective system, right when families across the UK are dealing with dramatic increases in the cost of living.
The grim reality is, this deal won’t stop human trafficking or people from dying in boats, as the government had claimed. If the UK really wanted to help refugees, it should be relaxing visa restrictions on its own borders, ensuring quick processing of asylum claims, and working to improve its own integration system.
As of June 2021, the UK had 125,000 cases “in progress.” Of those cases, 60,000 were awaiting initial decisions.
Refugees deserve compassion and empathy. The UK has the opportunity to give people fleeing from terror a chance at rebuilding their lives in peace. Why would we push them away?
Olufemi Ogunjobi is a Ccmmentator with Young Voices, and African Programs Manager at Students For Liberty. The views expressed are the author's own.
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