Asylum Seekers to be sent to Rwanda
It was announced by the Prime Minister today (14 April 2022) at a speech in Kent that a new plan for immigration is being implemented to help deal with the asylum issues.
The new measures announced include giving the Royal Navy operational command of the Channel operations from 15 April 2022 and a new reception centre is planned. Asylum seekers arriving in the UK will be held instead of being placed in hotels.
The government has contracted with the Rwandan government to operate a trial scheme whereby asylum seekers who arrive illegally including crossing the Channel are to be flown some 4,000 miles to Rwanda while they are waiting for their claims for asylum to be assessed. It is understood that it is only men who will be sent to Rwandan not women or children. The costs of the trial scheme are reported to be around £120 million.
This move by the Government is seen as being controversial not least because according to the Human Rights Watch report, into the Events of 2019 in Rwanda credible sources confirmed that in both official and unofficial facilities detainees in Rwanda were experiencing arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, and torture.
The Nationality and Borders Bill, which will enable the Government to send asylum seekers to be processed abroad, is in the final stages having been returned from the House of Lords back to the House of Commons for the Lord’s amendments to be further considered.