They formed the first group of illegal immigrants that the British government intended to take by force to Rwanda, based on an agreement between the British and Rwandan governments. The plan, strongly defended by the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, ended up being blocked by the country’s Supreme Court.
UK passes law to send immigrants to Rwanda
But neither the plane detained on the runway nor the Supreme Court’s ruling of illegality managed to stop the United Kingdom from going ahead with the plan: this week, two years after the first attempt, the British Parliament approved the same law, with legal maneuvers to circumvent the Court’s veto. The measure is endorsed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the son of Indian immigrants.
The law, one of the main pillars of the country’s government, consists of sending by plane to shelters in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, groups of people who have entered the United Kingdom illegally and requested asylum and refuge in the United Kingdom. In return, London will pay around 370 million pounds sterling (around R$2.3 billion) to Rwandan coffers.
The model, unprecedented in the world, has already been considered illegal by the United Nations (UN) and by the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court itself. This Tuesday, the heads of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and Human Rights asked the United Kingdom to reconsider the decision.
The focus is on asylum-seeking migrants who arrive in the UK on boats crossing the English Channel. According to the British Home Office, 6,265 boats arrived in the country, 24% more than the same period in 2023. The majority (40%) were from Vietnamese and Afghans in 2024. See the data below:
- 2021: 28,526 boats
- 2022: 45,774
- 2023: 29,437
- 2024* (until April 21): 6,265
The English Channel is currently the main entry point for irregular migrants into the United Kingdom and the final stage of a journey that usually begins in Central Africa and continues through the north of the continent to southern Europe through dangerous crossings across the Mediterranean.
This Tuesday, five people died at a crossing. The migrants drowned at around 5am local time after a disturbance inside the inflatable boat they were in, according to French police. The suspicion is that the vessel was overcrowded.
First group will be taken to Rwanda in July
The first group, the government said, will be sent in July this year — until then, however, Critics of the controversial law promise a new battle in court to try to prevent the plan from coming into effect again.
O main argument is that the measure violates the “non-refoulement”one of the fundamental principles of international law and which prohibits a country from returning or deporting any person who enters its territory seeking asylum or refuge.
“Violations of International Law (both Refugee and Human Rights) are multiple, with emphasis on the issues of persecution and non-refoulement, which are cornerstones of the protection of the right to asylum through refuge”, he told the g1 a PhD in International Law from the University of São Paulo, a master’s degree from the NYU School of Law and a specialist in refuge and human rights.
The Refugee Status, a document ratified by the 1951 Geneva Convention and of which the United Kingdom is a signatoryalso prohibits the return of migrants and determines that any person who flees a country at war or claims to suffer political persecution, due to race or sexual orientation have the right to go to another country and request asylum there.
The British government claims that Kigali is a safe city and that immigrants will be protected. And the argument was the great maneuver that Rishi Sunak’s government found to circumvent the Supreme Court: In the text of the new bill approved this week, the Executive determines that the courts will have to prove that Rwandan shelters are not a safe place.
A recent case argues against this argument: at the beginning of the year, two Indian immigrants who had arrived in the British territory of Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, were sent for medical care to hospitals in Kigali, as a test of the British government’s project. .
The two claimed to have been sexually abused, stated that the conditions in the shelter were terrible and opened a lawsuit against Rishi Sunak’s government.
But why, despite the bans, infringements and criticism, does the British government insist on taking the project forward?
The Conservative Party, which has ruled the United Kingdom since 2010, has an anti-immigration policy. That’s why, For more than a decade, the country’s government has been trying alternatives to reduce the number of migrants.
The main banner of Brexit, defended since 2014 by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, approved by the majority of the population in 2016 and implemented in 2020, had as its main banner the promise to curb the number of foreigners in the country.
But the Divorce with the European Union did not make the flow decrease. On the contrary. Since then, the country broke several records in immigrant arrivals — in 2021, the numbers tripled compared to 2019. The 2024 numbers continue to rise: 6,265 boats arrived in the United Kingdom by boat via the English Channel, 24% more than the same period in 2023
In 2023, the British government had tested another idea: it built types of floating buildings in ports in southern England to hold asylum seekers there.
The bill approved on Monday by the British Parliament allows the government to send immigrants who have arrived from anywhere in the world and requested asylum on British soil to get on a plane that will take them to Rwanda –even if the person has never set foot in Rwanda.
The expectation is that King Charles III will give royal consent this week and the project will become law.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the government has already chartered commercial planes and trained around 500 aviation workers to fly migrants to Rwanda.
The asylum application will be judged by the Rwandan government, and if accepted, people will receive refugee status in Rwanda, and not in the United Kingdom.
To receive these immigrants, Rwanda will receive a total of 370 million pounds sterling (about R$2.3 billion) from the British government over a period of five years.
Immigrants who arrived illegally
For the government, one of the effects of deportations to Rwanda will be to reduce the flow of people entering the United Kingdom illegally.
The Associated Press news agency made a comparison with the numbers of small boats that reached the coast of the United Kingdom in three moments.
- In 2018, there were 299.
- Four years later, in 2022, there were 45,774.
- Last year, the number of boats was 29,437.
According to the AP, there are criminal groups specialized in taking people to the coast of the United Kingdom in small boats, departing from continental Europe.
People who disagree with the project say that the idea of deporting people to a country with which they have no relationship and where they did not want to go is inhumane.
Lucy Gregg, director of the group Freedom from Torture, called on the government to “start treating refugees decently and stop trying to send them away to an uncertain future in Rwanda.”
Critics also say that Rwanda does not have a history of respecting human rights and that immigrants could end up being sent back to their home countries, where they fled and are at risk.
The new law states that some rules protecting human rights in the UK will not apply to the scheme.
In June last year, the country’s courts ruled that the measure was illegal. In order not to contradict this decision, the text approved by Parliament this Tuesday determines that British judges need to consider that Rwanda is a safe destination for immigrants before they are placed on planes.
According to the “New York Times”, even with the approval of the law, there must be judicialization of these deportation attempts. According to the newspaper, it is possible that the government will be able to send some planes with immigrants to Rwanda before the country’s general elections, which should take place in the second half of the year, but the cost of these operations will be very high.
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