International
UK-Rwanda asylum deal: High Court ruling exposes detractors’ ill motives
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?