In England, the decision to send asylum seekers who came to the country illegally to Rwanda has been appealed to the court of appeal. The court ruled that the decision regarding the asylum seekers be implemented. After the court decision, it was stated that starting from tomorrow, illegal refugees will be sent to Rwanda in groups.
The United Nations’ reaction to the decision of the UK court of appeals that flights that take irregular refugees to African countries could be made.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi criticized the court decision regarding the British Government’s sending asylum seekers to Rwanda and said that the agreement between the two countries, announced in April, was completely wrong. “We’ve been so frank about Rwanda over the last few weeks that we think it’s wrong for many different reasons,” Grandi said.
Stating that England is a party to the International Refugee Convention, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Grandi stated that as a signatory country, trying to export the responsibilities brought by this agreement to other countries is completely against any concept of responsibility and international rules.
Noting that Rwanda has had a bad history of tens of thousands of Congolese and Burundian refugees in the past, Grandi said that the country does not have the capacity or infrastructure to conduct the refugee status assessments necessary in a case.
High Commissioner Grandi also said that the UK Government’s thesis that the main purpose of the practice was to save people from dangerous boat journeys off the coast of Europe, along the English Channel, was also inadmissible. “We might have argued if it were the other way around, but we’re talking here about a country that is trying to export its responsibility to another country, Rwanda, the UK,” Grandi said. Saving people from dangerous journeys is great, absolutely great, but is this the right way to do it? I don’t think so at all,” he said.