Priti Patel defended plans to send unauthorized asylum seekers on a one-way ticket to Rwanda, saying critics of the scheme had failed to offer an alternative solution to the migration crisis.
The proposal, announced last week, was widely condemned as inhumane, illegal, unworkable and prohibitively expensive. Critics include Tory MPs and colleagues, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Archbishop of Canterbury, who said in his Easter sermon that the scheme “does not stand up to God’s judgment”.
Writing to the Times in a joint article with Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta, Patel, the interior minister, responded to critics. She said the proposal was an act of a “humanitarian nation”, describing the partnership as “innovative” and one that would set a “new international standard”.
She said: “We are taking bold and innovative steps and it is surprising that those institutions that criticize the plans are failing to come up with their own solutions.
The interior minister said the plans would help end the “deadly trafficking” in human trafficking, as well as the “deeply unfair” current situation, which allows those who have the means to pay human traffickers, to vulnerable people who can’t. “
She said: “We can provide legal, safe, orderly and controlled ways for people to improve their lives, escape oppression, persecution or conflict, and enjoy new opportunities.”
However, a letter to the Prime Minister from 150 British refugee organizations, including the Joint Immigrant Welfare Council, Rainbow Migration and Hope not Hate, said the plan would “cause great suffering” and “lead to more not less, dangerous travel – leaving more people at risk of trafficking.
The government has also been criticized for failing to create new safe and legal routes to the UK for asylum seekers, having previously suggested that such new routes would ensure that people will no longer have to risk their lives trying to reach United Kingdom.
Patel and Biruta also defended Rwanda against critics who cited its poor human rights record, with groups reporting torture of detainees.
They wrote that the scheme would “support the welfare and respect of refugees, provide human capital opportunities for migrants and the host community, and offer safe and legal avenues for those fleeing persecution and insecurity”.
Energy Minister Greg Hands reiterated Patel’s defense. Asked by Sky News if the Archbishop of Canterbury was wrong to call the plan “ungodly”, he said: “I think what others, critics of this plan, need to do is show what their decision would be.”
He also dismissed speculation that the scheme was down, insisting it would act as a “significant deterrent” for people trying to cross the English Channel in small boats.
“We think it will work and we are confident it will work,” he told Times Radio. “We need to send this message now – that the illegal crossing of the English Channel does not necessarily lead to the finding of the person in the United Kingdom.
So, relocation to Rwanda is there – we think it will act as a significant deterrent for people traveling, and [it] in the end, it will be at the expense of the smugglers of people who … we want to shut down the business. “
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