UK MPs question Rwanda deportation plan: report

Online News EditorJuly 17, 2022

London, Jul 18 (EFE).- A group of United Kingdom members of parliament has questioned whether the government’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda will deter migrants seeking to cross the English Channel irregularly.

Home Secretary Priti Patel has justified the Rwanda plan on the grounds that the prospect of being sent to the African country would disrupt people-smuggling and small-boat Channel crossings by acting as a deterrent.

“The government’s stated purpose of the Migration and Economic Development Program with Rwanda is to deter people from seeking to arrive in the UK by irregular means. It is not clear as yet whether it will have that effect,” the cross-party Home Affairs Committee said in a report on Monday, asking the government to present evidence for assuming this.

“The Home Office must also set out what steps it is taking to ensure that the mental and physical wellbeing of those who are relocated to Rwanda is secured for the long term,” it said.

In this sense, the committee says that “no magical single solution is possible” to deal with irregular immigration across the English Channel with precarious boats and that “detailed, evidence-driven, properly costed and fully tested policy initiatives” are needed.

In 2021, more than 28,500 people arrived by small boat and this is expected to increase to around 60,000 by the end of 2022, according to the report.

Faced with this increase, in mid-April the government of Boris Johnson announced an agreement with Rwanda in which it promised to give £120 million ($143 million) for the development of the African country that, in return, would take in asylum seekers from the United Kingdom.

Despite the “visibility” that boat arrivals have on British shores – including tragedies such as the 27 people who drowned in the channel on Nov. 24 – the report recalls that there are many migrants who enter clandestinely through other routes, such as ferries, planes and trains.

The recent increase in people opting for precarious boat crossings is attributed to the reinforcement of security by the French and British authorities in the north of France, which has displaced the flow that used to opt for vehicles.

“Any policy that closes down small boat immigration by inadvertently creating something even more dangerous would be a pyrrhic victory,” the lawmakers warn.

The report also recommends more cooperation with France and the rest of the European Union, despite of the obstacles of Brexit.

“The provision of safe and legal routes to the UK should be a key part of the government’s strategy to counter the criminal trade, and this has not yet received the attention it deserves,” it said.

“The government risks undermining its own ambitions and the UK’s international standing if it cannot demonstrate that proposed policies such as pushbacks, now abandoned, and offshore processing, such as the Rwanda partnership now being legally challenged, are compatible with international law and conventions.” EFE

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Rwanda migrant scheme: No evidence that UK policy deters migrants, say MPs

By Owen Amos
BBC News
  

Migrants being brought into Dover last week

There is "no clear evidence" that the UK's plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda will stop risky Channel crossings, a group of MPs has said.

In April, the UK said some people arriving on small boats from France would be sent to claim asylum in Rwanda - a policy meant to deter the journeys.

But MP Diana Johnson, chair of the home affairs committee, said it "appears to have gone unnoticed" by migrants.

The government said its "world-leading" plan would stop dangerous crossings.

The Rwanda policy was announced in April, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying action was needed to stop "vile people smugglers".

However, no migrants have yet been sent to the east African country.

Earlier this year, 47 people were told they would be flown to Rwanda, with a flight booked for 14 June. But after a series of legal challenges, and a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights, the flight was cancelled.

More than 14,000 migrants have crossed the Channel on small boats this year - including 442 on Monday 11 July alone - and the home affairs committee said the Rwanda announcement had not been effective.

"There is no clear evidence that the policy will deter migrant crossings - numbers have significantly increased since it was announced in April," the report said.

However, the committee accepted the increase may be down to traffickers telling migrants to make the journey in case the flights to Rwanda begin.

"One explanation for [the increase in crossings] may be attributed to scaremongering from people traffickers, that because of new regulations coming in across the Channel it will be much harder to access the UK in future, so they had better get on with it," the report says.

The report said the numbers making the "hazardous" journey across the Channel in small boats had "rocketed".

"More than 28,500 people came in small boats last year; an estimated 60,000 or more are expected during 2022," it said.

"Soberingly, at least 166 have died or gone missing as they sought a new home in our country, 27 of them lost at sea on a single terrible day last November."

But the MPs said there was "no magical single solution to dealing with irregular migration".

Instead they called for "detailed, evidence-driven, fully costed and fully tested policy initiatives" that achieve "sustainable incremental change".






The prime-ministerial race and a fresh legal challenge mean the pause button has been pressed on the Rwanda plan espoused by Boris Johnson and launched by Home Secretary Priti Patel.

Aware of its potential popularity with Tory voters, they faced down critics of the controversial deal.

As well as charities and human rights groups, opponents included church leaders and - reportedly - the Prince of Wales.

In its response to the MPs' conclusions, the Home Office says it was never seen as a "silver bullet", employing the committee's own language.

The eleventh-hour grounding of the first flight by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) renewed the determination of the plan's supporters.

But will it deter migrants from boarding the boats? The MPs say there is no evidence so far.

A fuller picture will emerge if there are regular Rwanda flights. And that will depend on the new prime minister.

The report noted that French authorities intercepted 6,000 journeys in the first half of 2021 - "nearly three times more than the year before".

But it also noted the "perceived reluctance of the French government to find a solution and work much more co-operatively with UK authorities".

The MPs said: "We recommend that the UK government continue to prioritise close, collaborative working with the French authorities...

"An intelligence-led approach remains the best way to identify the activities of such gangs and prevent their continuing exploitation of vulnerable people."

The report also said:

There were 48,450 asylum applications in 2021, and the total asylum caseload is more than 125,000

In 2020 (the most recent figures) asylum seekers waited an average of 449 days for a decision, rising to 550 days for unaccompanied children

Out-of-date IT, high staff turnover, and not enough workers were behind the delays

By September 2021, 64,000 people were in asylum accommodation, of whom 13,000 were in hotels

In February the Home Office said it was spending £4.7m a day on hotels for asylum seekers and Afghan refugees

Overall, the UK asylum system costs more than £1.5bn a year to administer

In response to the report, the Home Office said there was "no silver bullet" to the "global migration crisis", but that the government must do "everything we can to fix the broken asylum system".

"Our New Plan for Immigration will bring in the biggest package of reforms in decades, allowing us to support those in genuine need while preventing illegal and dangerous journeys into the UK, and breaking the business model of vile people smugglers," a spokeswoman said.

The Home Office also said it was recruiting more decision makers, improving digital technology, offering more remote interviews to reduce waiting times, and improving the interview process to "ensure decisions are right first time".