Reaction floods in to Govt’s ‘barbaric’ offshore processing plans

Reaction to government plans for asylum seekers who cross the Channel in small boats to be flown for processing to Rwanda has flooded in this morning.

Home Secretary Priti Patel is expected to sign a deal with the East African nation during a visit on Thursday, with people seeking sanctuary in the UK to be sent more than 4,000 miles.

Some of those who make the perilous crossing of the Channel, as well as by other means deemed “illegal” by the Government, would be sent to Rwanda while their claims are assessed “offshore”.

Derision

News of the scheme quickly drew derision from the Opposition as well as refugee advocates, including the Bishop of Durham, Paul Butler, who told the BBC it would not work.

“I really worry that this is not the right way to treat asylum seekers. We have an international duty under the Refugee Convention to look after asylum seekers well. They are big issues. They’ve got to tackled and I don’t think this is the way to do it,” he said.

“I remain to be convinced that it’s going to be deterrent in any way.”

Labour accused Boris Johnson of trying to distract from being fined for breaching coronavirus laws with “unworkable, unethical and extortionate” plans.

Human rights campaigners have described the Government’s plan as “barbaric”, “cowardly” “shockingly ill-conceived”.

“Cowardly” and “barbaric”

Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK’s refugee and migrant rights director, said that the African nation had a “dismal human rights record”.

In a statement to the PA news agency, Mr Valdez-Symonds said: “Sending people to another country – let alone one with such a dismal human rights record – for asylum ‘processing’ is the very height of irresponsibility and shows how far removed from humanity and reality the Government now is on asylum issues.

“The Government is already wrecking our asylum system at huge cost to the taxpayer while causing terrible anxiety to the people stuck in the backlogs it has created.”

“But this shockingly ill-conceived idea will go far further in inflicting suffering while wasting huge amounts of public money.”

Another refugee advocacy group issued a withering assessment of the scheme, calling it a “grubby cash-for-people plan” that was “cowardly” and “barbaric”.

Reaction

Here’s a pick of the reaction elsewhere:

We’re sending people who try to seek a safe life here in the UK to Rwanda? Is that what we’re doing? Lower than low we are at the top!

— Gary Neville (@GNev2) April 14, 2022

#KayBurley: What do you make of the idea of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda?

Steve Valdez-Symonds(Amnesty International UK): It's truly shocking.. it didn't work in Australia.. so it's beyond belief that this government thinks we need to adopt a measure like this#BBCBreakfast pic.twitter.com/E5FHq6D1jB

— Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) April 14, 2022

Papers have been briefed that Govt will announce tomorrow that asylum seekers will be flown to centres in Rwanda for the claims to be assessed. Sending people fleeing from persecution to a dictatorship that repeatedly violates human rights might just be a new low.

— Sam Freedman (@Samfr) April 13, 2022

Imagine taking a private plane you painted in 🇬🇧 flags at taxpayer expense for a PR stunt in Rwanda because you plan to spend billions processing migrants there whilst Ukraine refugees give up on the UK because you made it so hard to get in.

All done by the daughter of migrants. pic.twitter.com/ayn88NS8nz

— Brendan May (@bmay) April 13, 2022

8 days ago, here’s a Home Office Minister saying there is absolutely no possibility of the government sending refugees to Rwanda, and that if there were he would know about it. 8 days ago. pic.twitter.com/OA5ClKWGW6

— Brendan May (@bmay) April 13, 2022

Britain, the fifth richest country in the world, is going to dump people it doesn’t want to deal with on Rwanda, the 116th richest country in the world.

So sick and bizarre. And embarrassing. https://t.co/WNMZspjSYx

— Alex Nunns (@alexnunns) April 13, 2022

Can you imagine boasting about this, about seizing some of the most desperate people in the world and dragging them off to Rwanda so that your lawbreaking boss can keep his sordid job?

(At a cost of £1.4 billion a year apparently. That would help feed a lot of people back home.) https://t.co/xeGUbHAibG

— Edwin Hayward (@edwinhayward) April 13, 2022

Britain a civilised country? Not if this is done https://t.co/cRW1KELOps

— Kevin Maguire (@Kevin_Maguire) April 13, 2022

And if an asylum applicant who’s been dumped in Rwanda is then refused, what happens then? The whole thing is the stuff of nightmares. It feels like things are becoming increasingly dystopian as the days pass. Why oh why can’t we have some creative and humane people in charge.

— Jessica Simor KC (@JMPSimor) April 13, 2022

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