The United Kingdom said it would announce a deal with Rwanda on Thursday in its latest attempt to tackle the problem of secret migration across the English Channel.
Interior Minister Priti Patel has long wanted to keep Australian-style asylum seekers offshore processing centers abroad, such as Ascension Island in the Atlantic Ocean.
Last year, it began talks with Denmark on sharing a center in Rwanda to process asylum seekers, where they will reside while their applications are processed.
Officials said on Monday night that Patel, who is in Rwanda this week, had secured a “partnership for migration and economic development” with the Central African country.
Although the deal is intended to involve the treatment of some asylum seekers in Rwanda, the details “have not yet been finalized”, according to one official. “There are some nuances in the wider deal,” he said.
This is an unworkable, unethical and blackmailing policy that could cost taxpayers in the UK billions of pounds during a cost of living crisis.
Refugee rights campaigns have described the idea as “barbaric”, while former Tory International Aid Secretary Andrew Mitchell had previously said the plan would cost more than a stay at the Ritz in central London.
The Government of Rwanda did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Boris Johnson, the prime minister, will give a broader speech Thursday morning on how the government hopes to tackle illegal migration, including the passage of small boats across the English Channel.
More than 600 people passed on Tuesday alone, and the number is expected to reach 1,000 a day in the coming weeks, according to the government.
Johnson will point out that 27 people drowned in an attempt to cross the English Channel last November. “In the coming weeks, there may be many more lost at sea and whose bodies may never be recovered,” he said. “These vile human smugglers are abusing the vulnerable and turning the English Channel into a water cemetery.
He will say that only by controlling illegal migration will the government be able to continue settling vulnerable people from countries such as Ukraine, Syria and Afghanistan.
Previous unsuccessful ideas proposed by the Interior Ministry include the installation of floating walls in the English Channel, the use of wave machines to move small boats and the treatment of asylum seekers on abandoned oil rigs in the North Sea.
Patel is expected to give details of the deal with Rwanda later in the day. Downing Street said Rwanda was one of the fastest growing economies in Africa and “recognized worldwide for its record of welcoming and integrating migrants.”
Ministers will also announce plans for a new multi-million pound handling center in the north of England – confirming that not all asylum seekers will be sent to Rwanda.
Yvette Cooper, the shadow interior minister, described Rwanda’s proposal as “desperate and shameful …”. . an attempt to divert attention from his own violation of the law, ”referring to the partygate scandal.
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“This is an inefficient, unethical and blackmailing policy that would cost taxpayers in the UK billions of pounds during the cost of living crisis and make it harder, not easier, to make quick and fair asylum decisions,” she added.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, a British charity, said the group was appalled by the government’s “cruel and nasty decision” to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Solomon said official figures show that two-thirds of people crossing the English Channel in small boats come from countries torn apart by war and persecution.
“Every day we hear stories of desperate Ukrainian families fleeing the war,” he said. “This is the brutal reality facing refugees fleeing conflicts around the world, whom the government now wants to treat as nothing more than a human burden to be sent elsewhere.
Additional report by Andres Shipani
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