The British Prime Minister presented, Thursday, April 14, a plan providing for the deportation to Rwanda of asylum seekers who seek protection from the United Kingdom. By doing so, he is making demagogic use of the migration issue.
Editorial of the "World". It takes a lot of confidence and cynicism for the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, to announce, on Thursday April 14, at the very moment when more than 4.6 million Ukrainians fleeing the war are taking refuge in Europe, his plan of expulsion to Rwanda for asylum seekers seeking UK protection. Under the terms of the “economic development partnership” signed in Kigali by its interior minister, Priti Patel, tens of thousands of asylum seekers can be taken against their will to the Rwandan capital, where their request will supposedly be examined . Even if they are recognized as refugees, it is in Rwanda that they will have to stay.
UK to send asylum seekers to Rwanda!
London does not say clearly on what criteria the asylum seekers targeted by this “one way” policy for Kigali will be chosen. But the announcement comes ahead of the discussion, in early May, in Westminster, of a bill which distinguishes "good refugees", those who arrive through state-approved admission procedures, from those who, in an irregular situation , seek asylum at the border and are presumed to be "false refugees". Migrants from France crossing the Channel on makeshift boats are the first targets.
Such a project is shocking on several counts. It ignores the fact that an asylum seeker is, by definition, in an irregular situation. It violates the Geneva Convention, which prohibits the refoulement of asylum seekers to a country where their freedoms would be threatened. However, Rwanda is regularly denounced for arbitrary detentions and unfair trials. The payment of 120 million pounds sterling (111 million euros) planned for the benefit of Kigali is presented by the regime of Paul Kagame as making it possible to finance "opportunities for Rwandans and migrants". That the United Kingdom, a developed country, thus "subcontracts" to a poor country the burden of an obligation under international law says a lot about Boris Johnson's respect for his commitments and the long tradition of defending human rights. man of his country.