Posted on 19 April 2022
Britain's Home Secretary Priti Patel and Rwanda's Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta on Friday signed a deal that will send some asylum-seekers to be detained in Rwanda (6400km away). The British government said the deal would help stop people-smugglers sending desperate migrants on treacherous journeys across the English Channel.
Rights groups and refugee organisations swiftly blasted what they called a “cruel”, “inhumane” and “neo-colonial” plan, and questioned both its cost to the British taxpayers and effect on migration.
“It’s truly shocking and inhumane,” said Steve Valdez-Symonds, the refugee and migrant rights programme director at Amnesty International UK.