New UK Prime Minister Ditches Rwanda Deportation Plan

In Summary

• The first deportation flights from the UK to Rwanda will not take off as planned.
• The plans were disrupted due to the recent election, which saw a change in leadership from the former British Prime Minister to newly elected PM Keir Starmer.
• Keir Starmer criticized the asylum and migration plan signed in 2022, stating it never acted as a deterrent and had the opposite effect.
• Rwanda was ready to welcome the deported asylum-seekers.
• The plan was controversial, with the National Audit Office revealing it could cost up to $190,000 per person over five years.
• Rwandan consultant Gatete Ruhumuliza expressed disappointment, emphasizing Rwanda's history with exile and its commitment to treating refugees well.
• In 2023, about 29,000 migrants crossed the British Channel.
• Migrants whose asylum applications were unsuccessful could have stayed in Rwanda.
• Kigali has yet to respond to the cancellation of the plan.

Kigali, Rwanda- The first deportation flights bound for Rwanda from the UK will not take off as planned. The former British Prime Minister had vowed they'd leave the UK by early July, but the downfall of his party in the latest election has upset his plans.

Rwanda was ready to welcome the deported asylum-seekers. Speaking on Saturday (Jul. 6), newly elected PM Keir Starmer said the asylum and migration plan that was first signed in 2022 was never effective.

"It has never acted as a deterrent. Almost the opposite, because everybody has worked out, particularly the gangs that run this, that the chance of ever going to Rwanda was so slim, less than 1%, that it was never a deterrent. The chances were not going and not being processed and staying here. Therefore, being paid for accommodation for a very, very long time. It's had the complete opposite effect. And I'm not prepared to continue with gimmicks that don't act as a deterrent."

The Rwanda plan provided that the asylum applications of some migrants crossing the English Channel to reach Britain would be processed in Rwanda. The Conservatives presented the deal as "a significant deterrent" so that people would stop crossing the English Channel to reach the UK.

The controversy surrounds the deal was also its cost. The UK government's spending watchdog, National Audit Office, revealed in March that up to $190,000 would be paid for each person sent to Rwanda over a five-year period.

Rwandan consultant Gatete Ruhumuliza regrets the ditching of the plan. "All we know is that because we were all once refugees ourselves, we cannot mistreat refugees. I was born in exile, my mother and father were born in exile, our president today was raised in exile, he left when he was four or five. There is hardly any Rwandan intelligentsia or people who have not experienced exile. This is an issue close to our heart.”

Had the application of migrants deported to Rwanda been unsuccessful, they could have stayed in the eastern African nation. About 29,000 migrants crossed the British Channel in 2023.

Kigali is yet to react to the ditching of the plan.