On Monday, December 19, the United Kingdom High Court ruled on the case concerning relocating asylum seekers to Rwanda.

One of the judges, Lord Justice Lewis, said: “The court has concluded that it is lawful for the government to make arrangements for relocating asylum seekers to Rwanda and for their asylum claims to be determined in Rwanda rather than in the United Kingdom.”

Ever since Rwanda and UK reached a deal, in April 2022, under which illegal immigrants and asylum seekers were to be sent to Rwanda to have their claims processed there, ill-intentioned and fraudulent NGOs and lawyers claiming to be concerned with the safety of asylum seekers turned to court to block the process.

 

The UK media, especially The Guardian, ran a series of scary stories depicting Rwanda as a rouge country next to hell, where there is no respect of human rights, concluding that it is not a safe country for the asylum seekers.

 

Misleading stories

 

The ruling by the High Court exposes sinister motives.

 

UK media outlets published misleading stories about Rwanda, relying on hearsay and lies peddled by haters whose main agenda is to tarnish the image of the country.

 

It was not surprising to see a person like Michela Wrong, known to be biased about Rwanda, being granted open space in The Guardian to say everything wrong about Rwanda,  without the editors making any simple facts check.

 

To permit Wrong and others like her to spread lies in the name of ‘freedom of expression,’ should not be an excuse for The Guardian to be used as a dustbin of falsehoods. Many people have lost confidence in newspapers that do not hold expected media ethics of fairness and truth. The Guardian’s editors stooped too low to be used as agents of deception.

 

The UK High Court ruling proves that the media stories meant to scare asylum seekers claiming that Rwanda is not a safe country are not only baseless but false. The UK government is in a better position to know about the safety of Rwanda than the biased few individuals that The Guardian gives space to express their hostility against Rwanda.

 

Lawyers and NGOs

 

The lawyers and NGOs who went to court to block the UK-Rwanda asylum deal, have a frustration that is understandable. Their actions were not out of concern for the safety, dignity and welfare of the asylum seekers, but their own profit motives.

 

In all media stories published under the influence of these lawyers and NGOs, their main complaint points to the amount of money, which was given to Rwanda – 120 million British pounds (about $146 million) to settle the asylum seekers.

 

The lawyers and NGOs are bitter because their bread has been taken away. They have been benefiting from UK public funds to advocate for the asylum seekers and also arrange for their settlement.

 

One such NGO called Care4Calais says, on its website: “We support people of refugee and asylum- seeking background who live in South-West London.”

When the asylum seekers are shifted to Rwanda, there will be no business for Care4Calais and other charity organizations.

 

Expectedly, Rwanda has to be demonized because the profiteering of UK NGOs and lawyers from asylum seekers comes to an end.

Some of these organizations are working closely with networks of asylum seekers smuggling syndicates. It’s a lucrative business where migrants have to pay a lot of money to cross the English Channel, a water way that connects France and Britain. In 2021, it was estimated that smuggling syndicates earned more than  $77million out of facilitating illegal migrants to cross to UK. 

 

 

The UK Home Office's Dan O'Mahoney told Parliament on November 17, 2021, that this illegal business had become so profitable for criminals and would take phenomenal amount of effort to shift it.

 

 

The UK-Rwanda asylum deal comes in to stop this illegal and dangerous business, which led to Rwanda being subjected to abuses and lies through the UK’s corrupt media.

 

This becomes a fight with mafia gangs who will not let go of their profitable illegal business.  

 

The untold truth about Rwanda

 

Since 2020, Rwanda has received over 900 asylum seekers, evacuated from Libya with the facilitation of UNHCR.  Over 70 percent have so far been resettled to third countries.

 

In September 2021, the School of Leadership Afghanistan, the first and only girls boarding school in Afghanistan, relocated 250 staff and students to Rwanda where the students had the opportunity to comfortably resume their studies.

Since 1996, Rwanda has received refugees from neighboring DRC and Burundi who have been provided with safety and opportunities to work and study. Rwanda currently hosts more than 130,000 refugees and asylum seekers, all handled in accordance with international law.

 

If other asylums seekers and refugees in Rwanda are safe, what is special about the UK asylum seekers?