(London) London deported the first asylum seeker to Rwanda on Monday, British media reported on Tuesday, a week after the adoption of a very controversial law allowing them to be sent to this East African country. migrants who arrived in the country illegally.
Rishi Sunak’s conservative government has made the fight against illegal immigration a priority, hoping to regain points in the polls against Labor.
The announcement of this first expulsion to Rwanda comes two days before local elections in England and Wales, in which the Conservatives risk suffering heavy losses.
It also comes a week after the adoption of a very controversial law allowing migrants who arrived in the United Kingdom illegally to be expelled to Rwanda. Their asylum application will be examined in the East African country and they will not be able to return to the United Kingdom, whatever the outcome.
The government plans to begin evictions within this framework by July.
But the asylum seeker deported to Rwanda on Monday was done as part of a separate program, on a voluntary basis, according to British media.
This man agreed to be deported to Rwanda after his asylum request was rejected late last year. He is, according to the tabloid Tea Sun, originating from the African continent. He traveled on a commercial flight to Kigali.
This man agreed to be deported to Rwanda and to receive in exchange a payment of up to 3,000 pounds sterling (5,160 Canadian dollars), government sources said, according to the Times.
“Rebuild their lives”
Contacted by AFP, the Interior Ministry did not confirm this information.
“We are now able to send asylum seekers to Rwanda as part of our partnership for migration and economic development,” however, indicated a government spokesperson.
“This agreement allows people without UK immigration status to be transferred to a safe third country where they will be helped to rebuild their lives,” the source added.
The ruling conservatives are counting on these expulsions of migrants to Rwanda to try to climb back up in the polls. These announce a crushing defeat for the “Tories” against Labor in the legislative elections scheduled for the end of the year.
This plan to deport migrants to Rwanda was announced two years ago by Boris Johnson, then Prime Minister, but was blocked by the European Court of Human Rights, then legal appeals and a long battle. several months in Parliament.
After the law was passed last week, the UN asked London to “reconsider its plan”.
But the British government indicated on Tuesday that it hoped to deport an already identified group of 5,700 asylum seekers to Rwanda “by the end of the year”, after the adoption of its controversial law intended to discourage illegal crossings of the Channel. .
They were selected from more than 57,000 people who arrived illegally in the United Kingdom via the Channel between the beginning of January 2022 and the end of June 2023, according to an AFP count based on official figures.
After reaching a record in 2022 (45,000), then dropping in 2023 (nearly 30,000), more than 7,200 people have illegally crossed the Channel aboard makeshift canoes since the start of the year, a historic record for the first four months of the year.
reference: www.lapresse.ca