UK Government Approves Plan to Send Immigrants to Rwanda

https://nytimes.com/world/europe/rwanda-vote-sunak-explained

Under the government’s plan, some of those arriving on small boats would be deported to Rwanda to have asylum claims heard there. Even if they were then recognized as refugees, they would then be invited to stay in the small African country rather than receiving permission to live in Britain.

Tens of thousands of people have been making the dangerous journey across the English Channel each year, often on unseaworthy boats. And, while the numbers are small compared with the scale of legal immigration to Britain, the arrivals are a highly visible and embarrassing symbol of the failure of one of the central promises of Brexit campaigners: to control Britain’s borders.

The Rwanda policy was introduced under the government of Boris Johnson in 2022, and was immediately criticized by human rights groups and legal experts, who warned that it was likely to be unworkable given Britain’s commitments under international law. The government plowed ahead, and Mr. Sunak committed to the plan when he became prime minister last year.

Despite the government spending or pledging a total of 290 million pounds — about $310 million — on the project so far, not a single asylum seeker has been flown to Rwanda. Britain’s Supreme Court ruled this year that Rwanda was unsafe for asylum seekers, and that some might be sent on to their countries of origin where they could be in danger. The new legislation aims to address the court’s objections.