UK govt red-faced after Rwandan diplomat’s migration criticism

LONDON: Britain´s government faced embarrassment on Sunday after Rwanda´s high commissioner in London was filmed criticising the UK´s historic human rights record and saying its hardline interior minister was “absolutely wrong” about migration.

Former Rwandan justice minister Johnston Busingye, now its top diplomat in Britain, was covertly filmed by campaign group Led By Donkeys hitting out at London´s centuries-old rights abuses while dismissing concerns about his own country´s contemporary record.

Britain has agreed an “asylum partnership arrangement” with Rwanda in order to send thousands of migrants regularly arriving in southeast England on small boats from northern France to the east African country for permanent resettlement.

However, the plan -- which has been widely criticised by rights groups and others -- is stalled amid a UK court challenge. Meanwhile, interior minister Suella Braverman has repeatedly stirred controversy over migration, most recently by questioning whether the United Nations Refugee Convention was “fit for our modern age”.

Asked what he would tell UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak or Braverman about their stances on migrants, Busingye said in the undercover recording he would reply that they were “absolutely wrong”.