The project, labeled crazy by the British Conservative government, is now law. The right-wing government of many countries, including Finland, is monitoring whether the Rwandan flights stop the arrival of asylum seekers.
Kirsi Crowley Britannian correspondent
LONDON The basic Finns have hinted at outsourcing the asylum process to Rwanda, like Britain. Now the start of the experiment in Britain is even closer.
This would start a new era in asylum policy. Many European countries, especially those led by right-wing governments, follow Britain’s intentions with interest.
Prime minister Rishi Sun too according to the transit of asylum seekers to Rwanda is almost ready to go. King Charles III confirm the law approved by the parliament within a week.
According to the Prime Minister, the airport and commercial charter flights are already booked. The flights will be launched within 10–12 weeks, i.e. approximately in July.
It’s a long battle ahead. The European Court of Human Rights and Britain’s own court blocked previous plans to send people who came to the country by boat to Rwanda. The intention is that asylum applications would be processed in Kigali and asylum seekers would stay there.
Now the parliament has legislated Rwanda as a safe country, whether it is or not. According to jurists, it is not, but the court cannot stop the intentions based on this.
The Rwanda decision is intended to be frightening
The conservative government wants Rwanda flights to be deterred. The idea is that those leaving their home countries would not even aspire to Britain, because of the risk of ending up in Rwanda. The government says it aims to stop human smuggling by law. Smugglers make money from illegal immigration and risk the lives of those trying to cross the Channel.
The government has invested its future in the plan. It is languishing at the bottom of its popularity and the elections are already looming on the calendar at the end of the year. The conservative government hopes that its own popularity will improve when the Rwanda flights take off. It has caught public opinion that opposes illegal immigration.
Flights to Rwanda may not turn popularity uphill. The project is expensive. Britain has already paid nearly 300 million euros to Rwanda and the payments will continue. According to the plans that have become public so far, it seems that Rwanda will only be able to receive hundreds, at most a few thousand people each year. There are already more than 50,000 people in Britain under the threat of leaving.
Those who support immigrants are expected to take the departure orders of individuals to court. So there are still some bumps in the road for flights to take off.
The UN criticizes the outsourcing of asylum policy
Enough with the criticism. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Philip Grandi criticizes the outsourcing of refugee protection and considers it a worrying precedent worldwide. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk is concerned about the damming of the power of the courts in monitoring human rights.
The Labor Party, which is in the opposition and has been tipped to be the winner of the upcoming parliamentary elections, is calling the plan a scam project. Last weekend alone, more people arrived in Britain by boat than could be sent to Rwanda in a year, notes the Labor Party’s shadow interior minister Yvette Cooper.
The number of people coming to the country by boat has increased by a quarter this year compared to last year. There have already been more than 6,000 arrivals this year. According to the French authorities, five people trying to reach Britain from Calais died today after the boat capsized. Only one of them was a four-year-old girl.
Even if the flights were to be launched before the elections expected at the end of this year, it may not have a significant impact on the voters. Although, according to opinion polls, the British are against entering the country by boat, the Rwandan flights do not solve more important problems for the voters. They include, in particular, getting by in everyday life when the cost of living increases drastically.
The Labor Party, the election favorite, plans to cancel flights to Rwanda if it comes to power.