Migrant issue

Back in December 2020, the Independent reported that Chris Philp – the then UK parliamentary under secretary of state and minister for immigration compliance and justice – had “refused to rule out sending asylum seekers to a remote island or disused oil platforms, or creating a ‘giant wave machine’” to repel migrant-bearing dinghies in the English Channel.

Now, Britain’s Conservatives have devised an even better solution to the migrant issue, whereby the United Kingdom will simply send asylum seekers to the African nation of Rwanda, about 6,500km (4,000 miles) away. And the new plan is already making waves. As John Washington, author of The Dispossessed: A Story of Asylum at the US-Mexican Border and Beyond, remarked on Twitter: “How much more darkly bonkers the global border regime will yet become is terrifying”.

The refugee-outsourcing arrangement was formalised on April 14 during a descent upon the Rwandan capital of Kigali by British Home Secretary Priti Patel, who tweeted a video explaining what this “world-first migration partnership” will mean. Not only will it “set a new standard for managing migration” and “break the business model of people-smuggling gangs”, but it will also “help fix the broken asylum system” by having Rwanda “process asylum claims of those making dangerous, illegal or unnecessary journeys to the UK”.

Apparently, asylum seekers ultimately deemed by Rwanda to have legitimately journeyed dangerously, illegally or unnecessarily to the UK will then be allowed to live in, um, Rwanda – where, as the BBC points out, the UK has “demanded investigations into alleged killings, disappearances and torture” while also expressing concern over the overall “human rights record” of the current Rwandan government and President Paul Kagame. How is that for a “business model”?

And while the global asylum system is certainly “broken”, the way to fix it is not by dismantling the very concept of asylum or offshoring migrant abuse in contravention of international law.

Nor is the UK-Rwandan “world-first migration partnership” as entirely groundbreaking as it purports to be, having been openly inspired by contemporary Australian offshore detention activities on the island nation of Nauru as well as Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island – which have served as Petri dishes for migrant suicide, self-harm, and general suffering. Human Rights Watch furthermore notes the “exorbitant” expense that has attended Australian state brutality: “Detaining a single asylum seeker on Papua New Guinea or Nauru cost around AUD $3.4 million (£1.8 million) annually”.

To be sure, this figure would seem to rather neatly obliterate the official UK argument that the whole Rwanda operation will somehow save British taxpayers’ money. But, hey, there is nothing like a good Migrant Menace to distract from domestic embarrassments like the busting of Prime Minister Boris Johnson for coronavirus lockdown violations, otherwise known as the “Partygate” scandal – speaking of things “dangerous, illegal or unnecessary”.

Excerpted: ‘The UK’s quick Rwandan fix for the ‘Migrant Menace’’ Courtesy: Aljazeera.com