Dr. C. Salek
London, 17/06/2024
In his firm statement Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced the UK’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda. “No ifs, no buts, these flights are going to Rwanda” he said. This announcement follows the passage of the Safety of Rwanda Bill, which designates Rwanda as a safe destination for deportees despite previous ruling by the UK Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights declaring such deportations unlawful under international law.
Background:
In April 2022, the government under Prime Minister Boris Jonson declared that any asylum seeker entering the UK “illegally” after 1 January 2022, from a safe country such as France, could be sent to Rwanda. They would have their asylum claims processed there, rather than in the UK. If successful, they could be granted refugees status and allowed to stay in Rwanda. If not, they could apply to settle in Rwanda on other grounds, or seek asylum in another “safe third country”.
Criticism of the Government’s Plan
Human rights organisations, churches and charities have criticised the plan, arguing that it is inhumane because Rwanda does not provide adequate protection for asylum seekers. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Office of High Commission for Human Right (OHCHR) have both expressed concerns that plane undermines international cooperation on refugees’ protection and violates the principle of Non-refoulement, which prohibits returning individuals to countries where they may face harm. The UK Supreme Court, upholding the decision of the Court of Appeal and the High Court before it, and the European Court of Human Rights declaring such deportations unlawful. It has confirmed that the principle of sending illegal migrants to a safe third country for processing is unlawful.
Despite these criticisms, the government insisted that the policy is necessary and will proceed as planned. Prime minster Rishi Sunak stated the new legislation is crucial for deterring dangerous crossings of the English Channel and breaking the business model of human smugglers. He asserted that the government is prepared to enforce the plane.
Rwanda bill
To avoid aborting the plan, the UK government prepared a bill and presented it to Parliament who voted in favour the government plane and issued so-called Rwanda bill, which granted Royal Asset later and became the “Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024”. The Act’s primary aim is to deter illegal immigration and manage asylum claims by transferring some asylum seekers to Rwanda. This move is part of a broader agreement between the UK and Rwanda, which signed on 5 December 2023, and ratified on 25 April 2024. The Act disapplies certain provisions of the UK Human Rights Act 1998. This includes not requiring UK courts to consider European Court for Human Rights’ judgements when deciding on the safety of Rwanda. The Act significantly restricts the ability of asylum seekers to challenge their removal to Rwanda, making it difficult to obtain legal remedies or interim relief, unless they can provide compelling of facing serious and irreversible harm. The Act will come into force only after the UK- Rwanda Asylum Partnership Treaties fully ratified by both countries, that is on 25 April 2024. The Act explicitly excludes Rwanda citizens from being removed to Rwanda.
Manifesto of the Maine parties:
After the Prime Minister announced the call for general elections on 4 July 2024, the issue of deporting illegal refugees became a matter of disagreement between the two main parties competing in the elections, the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. It has become part of the both parties’ manifestos.
The conservatives considered in its manifesto that illegal migrations unfair for the taxpayers as well as the migrants themselves who risk their lives in the hand of people smugglers. It confirmed that the only way to stop the boats entirely is to remove the incentive to come, by making clear that if you come here illegally, you will not be allowed to stay. Only then will the boats stop coming and people dying in Channel. The conservative manifesto 2024 stated: “We will run a relentless continual process of permanently removing illegal migrant to Rwanda with a regular rhythm of heights every month, stating this July, until boats are stopped.”
Instead of this Rwanda scheme, the Labour Party will reform the system to be controlled and managed. Labour will create a new boarder security command with hundreds of new investigator officers and cross-boarder police officers. Labour Party will not allow any deportation flights to take off for Rwanda from the moment it wins an election, Keir Starmer has said.
It appears that the both parties are unanimous in combating illegal immigration, each in its own way. That is the goal is the same, but the method is different. While the Conservatives have an innovative and creative mechanism of action that definitely leads to combating illegal immigration, the labour will try again with an old, ineffective mechanism of action.
What is the most effective method?
It is worth noting that the issue of illegal immigrants in the United Kingdom is often not linked to humanitarian attitudes toward refugees fleeing persecution in their country, as promoted by the media and human rights bodies. Since most asylum seekers in UK normally come from safe third countries such as France, and do not come from their crisis countries directly to the UK. Therefore, The issue for UK is more about the legacy left by UK’s EU membership and inactive Schengen Agreements. Therefore, the humanitarian dimension related to the need to protect people fleeing their country due to the humanitarian situation must be excluded from this discussion between both parties. These people usually come from a third country that must provide them with protection. Instead, the discussion should be limited to the technical dimension only, that is their methods to deal with the illegal immigration. In other words, which mechanism of action is more effective and capable of achieving objective and keeping national interests?
Drying Springs:
The Rwanda Scheme is undoubtedly more effective, because it removes the incentive for asylum seekers to come and seek asylum in the UK. In another meaning, it dries up the springs. Therefore, the asylum seeker will not think about entering the UK illegally, knowing that he will have no chance of staying in the UK. The smugglers would lose their potential customers, the boats would stop coming and there would be no more opportunity to endanger the lives of others by making the risky journey across the English Channel. This shows that the Rwanda Scheme is indeed achieving its objective in combating illegal immigration and protecting migrants by sparing them the unfruitful and dangerous journey. Once the Rwanda plan is implemented, the boats will stop coming, and the whole issue will be solved. The government will probably only need a few flights to Rwanda for several months.
On the other hand, Labour’s approach of creating a new border security command with hundreds of new officers cannot address the problem of illegal immigrants for many reasons. One of these reasons is that smuggler gangs are experienced and professional, always able to develop their tactics to exploit any loophole depending on the circumstances. They will always be able to find ways to cross the English Channel and bring in illegal immigrants. Moreover, this scheme has been adopted and used by most countries, but has not been successful in combating illegal immigration. Why does Labor want us to believe they will succeed, when every country, including the UK, has failed to control their maritime borders to this day?
Scrapping the Rwanda scheme
Can Labour Party repeal the Rwanda Scheme if they win the next elections on July 4, 2024?
If Labor wins the election, it will gain a majority in the House of Commons. This is enough to repeal the Rwanda Act and consequently the Rwanda scheme, even if the House of Lords would not agree to this step, because Scrapping the Rwanda Scheme was part of the Labor Party’s manifesto. In this case, the Labor Party will replace the effective Scheme with ineffective one, namely Labour’s approach of creating a new border security. The Labour cannot do so without neglecting the national interest, which requires combating illegal immigration and restricting the number of asylum seekers in UK. It means just bickering in order to win some voters.
The national interests require finding an effective way to combat the illegal immigration and their harm impacts. Doubtless, the illegal immigration is involving economic, social, political and humanitarian dimension. The illegal migrants depress wages and working conditions for low-skilled native workers. They may exhaust the public services such as healthcare and education. They may face difficulties integrating into society. Furthermore, illegal immigrant my destroy the integration policy which could lead to destruction of the social fabric and emergence of parallel societies. Finally the illegal immigration may destroy the government’s plans and laws for legal immigrations. These impacts may lead to jeopardising the national interest.
All this damage would be caused if the Rwanda Scheme is aborted. Furthermore, we will hear stories of death over and over again in the English Channel.
