The first deportation flights from the UK to Rwanda, planned under the previous administration, will not proceed. The former British Prime Minister had promised the flights would commence by early July, but his party’s defeat in the recent election has disrupted these plans.
Rwanda was prepared to receive the deported asylum-seekers. However, newly elected PM Keir Starmer announced on Saturday (July 6) that the asylum and migration plan, signed in 2022, was ineffective.
Starmer Criticizes Ineffective Policy
“It has never acted as a deterrent. Almost the opposite, because everybody has worked out, particularly the gangs that run this, that the chance of ever going to Rwanda was so slim, less than 1%, that it was never a deterrent. The chances were not going and not being processed and staying here. Therefore, being paid for accommodation for a very, very long time. It’s had the complete opposite effect. And I’m not prepared to continue with gimmicks that don’t act as a deterrent,” Starmer said.
The plan stipulated that asylum applications of some migrants crossing the English Channel to reach Britain would be processed in Rwanda. The Conservatives had promoted the deal as a significant deterrent to illegal crossings. However, the policy’s cost raised concerns. The UK’s National Audit Office revealed in March that up to $190,000 would be spent per person sent to Rwanda over five years.
Rwandan Perspective on the Plan
Rwandan consultant Gatete Ruhumuliza expressed disappointment over the plan’s cancellation. “All we know is that because we were all once refugees ourselves, we cannot mistreat refugees. I was born in exile, my mother and father were born in exile, our president today was raised in exile, he left when he was four or five. There is hardly any Rwandan intelligentsia or people who have not experienced exile. This is an issue close to our heart,” Ruhumuliza said.
Had the asylum applications of migrants deported to Rwanda been unsuccessful, they would have been allowed to stay in the eastern African nation. In 2023, approximately 29,000 migrants crossed the English Channel to reach Britain.
Kigali has yet to respond to the cancellation of the plan.
