UNHCR lies to influence ruling on UK-Rwanda asylum seekers partnership exposed

Author: Gad Ntambara

• 2023-11-23 05:30:00

The UK Supreme Court delivered a highly politicized judgment on the Migration and Economic Development Partnership that would enable UK asylum seekers to be relocated to Rwanda, while their asylum applications are being considered.  

The Court relied on information provided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), claiming that Rwanda is not a safe country for asylum seekers and refugees.

The UNHCR has collaborated with Rwanda over the years on refugees and asylum seekers projects. The decision to misinform the UK Supreme Court by providing inaccurate evidence is puzzling, and questionable.

A day after the ink on the Court ruling dried on paper, Rwanda received 169 asylum seekers from Libya, on November 16, ironically under the 2019 memorandum of understanding signed between the Rwandan government, the UNHCR, and the African Union. 

The fact that collaboration between UNHCR and Rwanda is still going on after the UK Supreme Court judgment is enough evidence to prove that UNHCR was hypocritical and acted dishonestly by feeding the Court with false information.

If Rwanda is unsafe for asylum seekers and refugees as UNHCR alleges, why does the UN agency carry on receiving them in the country?

As of September 30, 2023, UNHCR acknowledged that Rwanda hosted over 135,000 refugees and asylum seekers. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) also confirmed that over 6,600 people have received resettlement assistance in the year.

UNHCR and IOM have never raised any complaint that Rwanda is an unsafe country for refugees and asylum seekers. On many occasions, they commend the way Rwanda treats refugees and asylum seekers.

In June 2022, the UNHCR posted on its website that “UNHCR applauds Rwanda’s generosity to people forced to flee, calls for more global solidarity for the refugee response.”

Again, when UN High Commissioner for refugees Filippo Grandi visited Rwanda, in April 2021, the UNHCR website reported that “Grandi praises Rwanda for offering life-saving haven for refugees”.

These statements by UNHCR on Rwanda’s good care of refugees and the “Rwanda not safe for refugees and asylum seekers” narrative fed to the UK Supreme Court are a puzzling contradiction.

In the evidence provided by the UNHCR to the UK Supreme Court, the UN agency alleged that Rwanda has a 100 per cent rejection rate of asylum seekers from some parts of the world. This is not only a naked lie but an act of dishonesty.

The UNHCR knows that Rwanda did not consider asylum for only two individuals from Syria and Yemen on grounds that there was a quicker option of securing legal residence. The two are currently living with their families in Rwanda and have secured decent jobs.

The UK-Rwanda asylum seekers’ deal is a humanitarian act meant to give illegal immigrants who make dangerous journeys a chance to build a new life and have a place they can call home.

The deal is not a business venture to benefit Rwanda as some detractors want the world to believe. The money provided by the UK government will be invested in good use for the benefit of the asylum seekers and not the benefit of the hosting country. Rwanda is a small country with a big heart to care for vulnerable asylum seekers. 

Rwanda and UK are partnering in an effort to curb a persistent global migration crisis that has not been solved by conventional approaches.

This is a new and innovative approach that includes support of economic development that guarantees better living conditions for asylum seekers, the majority of whom are forced to flee their home countries by poor economic conditions, and search for greener pastures in Europe.

In 2023, over 2,500 migrants lost their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. In 2021, 3,231 were recorded as dead or missing at sea in the Mediterranean and the north west African routes, with 1,881 in 2020, 1,510 in 2019, and more than 2,277 in 2018. 

A large number of them may have died or gone missing along land routes through the Sahara Desert and remote border areas.

One of the primary objectives of the Rwanda-UK asylum seekers deal is to stop such unfortunate deaths.

Unfortunately, the UNHCR whose primary responsibility would otherwise have been to work with countries all over the world is on the devil’s side to frustrate innovative partnerships meant to solve the problem of asylum seekers. The lies are evidence enough that UNHCR serves political interests.