WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES – Britain’s newly elected Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, has canceled the controversial plan of the previous government to send illegal immigrants to Rwanda, a landlocked African country.
As reported by The Telegraph, the new UK Prime Minister, who officially began his tenure on Friday, July 5, halted the Rwanda deportation plan on his first day in office.
In April 2022, the UK government announced that asylum seekers entering the UK “illegally” after January 1, 2022, from safe countries like France, could potentially be relocated to Rwanda.
The former UK government argued at the time that the plan would deter people from arriving in the UK via small boats across the dangerous English Channel and disrupt the business model of “criminal gangs” who exploit them.
While the UK parliament approved the plan in April of this year, it was not implemented due to legal issues. However, during the election campaign, the former UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, emphasized that he would implement the plan if elected prime minister.
The plan faced criticism from the UK Supreme Court, European Court, activists, and rights groups, all of whom denounced it as unlawful and a violation of international law and human rights obligations.
Earlier, Amnesty International UK called the legislation “a stain on this country’s moral reputation.” “The UK parliament has passed a bill that takes a hatchet to international legal protections for some of the most vulnerable people in the world and it is a matter of national disgrace that our political establishment has let this bill pass,” the rights group said.
Thousands of asylum seekers, including those from Afghanistan, who entered the country via the English Channel were at risk of deportation to Rwanda under the now defunct plan.
Following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, there has been a significant increase in the number of Afghans attempting to reach the UK by crossing the English Channel in small boats.
According to a report from the UK-based The Migration Observatory, in the first half of 2023, Afghan nationals became the most common nationality arriving in the UK via small boats, making up 20% of all arrivals.
The report indicates that from April 2022 to June 2023, more Afghans arrived in the UK by small boats than through the UK’s specialized humanitarian routes for Afghans (ARAP and ACRS).
“In that fifteen-month period, around 9,500 Afghans arrived via small boat, while around 3,500 arrived via Afghan routes. In the first half of 2023 (1 January to 30 June), almost nine times as many Afghans (around 1,500) arrived by small boat than by an Afghan route.”
The English Channel is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, known for its strong currents. It is a dangerous route for migrants to attempt to cross, and hundreds, including Afghans, have died in the attempt in recent years.
