RWANDAN PARLIAMENT APPROVES UK’S MIGRANT DEPORTATION DEAL

Fri 01 March 2024:

Legislators in Rwanda adopted on Wednesday a treaty that was agreed in December between the UK and Rwanda, allowing London to transfer asylum seekers to Rwanda.

The agreement was signed in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, by Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta and British Home Secretary James Cleverly, with at least 68 of the 70 legislators present voting in support of it.

Emmanuel Ugirashebuja, the minister of justice for Rwanda, said the parliamentarians that under the agreement, a special court will be established in Rwanda to handle cases and legal concerns pertaining to refugees and asylum seekers.

A standard operating procedure will be followed to protect the migrants against refoulement, and an independent committee will be set up to audit the implementation of the agreement, he said.

“Refoulement” means being sent back to one’s country of origin where there is a risk of persecution.

In addition, Ugirashebuja said there will be an appeal tribunal headed by a Rwandan judge working together with another from a Commonwealth country, where migrants can reach in case of perceived unfair treatment.

What is the Rwanda asylum plan?

Under a five-year agreement, some asylum seekers arriving in the UK would be sent to Rwanda, to have their claims processed there

If successful, they could be granted refugee status and allowed to stay. If not, they could apply to settle in Rwanda on other grounds, or seek asylum in another “safe third country”.

No asylum seeker would be able to apply to return to the UK.

Anyone “entering the UK illegally” after 1 January 2022 could be sent to Rwanda, the government said, with no limit on numbers.

Ministers argue the plan would deter people from arriving in the UK on small boats across the English Channel.

No asylum seeker has yet been sent to Rwanda, which is a small landlocked country in east-central Africa, 4,000 miles (6,500km) from the UK.

The first flight was scheduled to go in June 2022, but was cancelled after legal challenges.

That deal, formally called the Rwanda-UK Migration and Economic Development Partnership initiative, was blocked by Britain’s Supreme Court last November.