Boris Johnson will have a potentially awkward meeting with the Prince of Wales in Rwanda after the heir to the throne criticized the government’s policy of sending asylum seekers to the East African country.
The talks will take place at the meeting of the Heads of Government of the British Commonwealth (Chogm) in Kigali this week. Prince Charles reportedly described the government’s plan to fly 4,000 people on a one-way ticket as “terrifying”.
The meeting between the Prime Minister and Prince Charles will be the first time they have spoken after a service on the Queen’s platinum anniversary. Prince Charles’ comments came a few days later.
Clarence House said the couple would meet for a cup of tea and catch up on Friday morning.
A spokesman for the prime minister said the meeting would be “informal, with no agenda”. “They are about to meet, they will obviously meet during the summit, but there will be a bilateral discussion,” he said.
The first flight to Rwanda was scheduled to take off last week, but was canceled after a recent intervention by the European Court of Human Rights led to several successful legal challenges. A hearing in the Supreme Court, which is examining whether the policy of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda is legal, is due to be heard next month.
The policy is one element of a £ 120m economic deal with Kigali and has been widely criticized. The government declined to disclose the expected flight costs and living expenses of those sent to Rwanda or the criteria by which they were selected for deportation. There are also deep concerns about the human rights situation in Rwanda, including allegations of extrajudicial killings, extradition of political opponents and a lack of freedom of the media.
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Rwandan President Paul Kagame has been praised for his role in ending the 1994 genocide that killed hundreds of thousands of Tutsis. But he has also been accused of ruthless harassment and kidnapping of political opponents.
His alleged victims include Paul Rusesabagina, a former Kigali hotel manager whose efforts to save people in the genocide are described in the film Hotel Rwanda. Rusesabagina, a permanent resident of the United States and a prominent dissident, was abducted during a trip to the Middle East in August 2020 and tricked into boarding a private jet that took him to Rwanda, where he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Last month, the US State Department officially declared him illegally detained.
Prince Charles, who represents the queen of the summit, landed in Rwanda on Tuesday. It is unclear on which day he will hold talks with Johnson, but he will open the main session of the meeting for prime ministers and presidents on Friday.
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