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Journalist compares Rwanda policy to Bible’s ‘Good Samaritan’

A journalist who writes for the Telegraph among other publications has compared the government’s controversial Rwanda policy to the story of the Good Samaritan from the Bible.

Andrew Lilico said plans to ship asylum seekers thousands of miles to a central African country stack up well against the teachings of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke.

“Surely it is exactly the same,” the Brexiteer tweeted.

“He took the injured man to someone to be looked after and paid for that to be done.

“In the case of the Samaritan he paid an innkeeper; in the case of the UK we pay the Rwandan authorities.

“Exactly the same.”

This weekend, Priti Patel said the “absolutely scandalous” European court decision which effectively grounded the first flight to send asylum seekers to Rwanda was politically motivated.

Judges at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday granted an injunction that resulted in a chartered aircraft to Kigali being unable to depart Wiltshire.

“You’ve got to look at the motivation,” Priti Patel told The Daily Telegraph.

“How and why did they make that decision? Was it politically motivated? I’m of the view that it is, absolutely.

“The opaque way this court has operated is absolutely scandalous. That needs to be questioned.

“We don’t know who the judges are, we don’t know who the panel are, we haven’t actually had a judgment – just a press release and a letter saying we can’t move this person under rule 39.

“They’ve not used this ruling previously, which does make you question the motivation and the lack of transparency.”

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Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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Tags: Rwanda