Boris Johnson announced on Thursday a plan to remove all asylum seekers to Rwanda, and start patrolling the English Channel with the Royal Navy.
Speaking at an airport in Kent, Johnson noted that while British compassion for refugees and asylum seekers “may be infinite, our capacity to help people is not.”
From Thursday, a new partnership between the United Kingdom and Rwanda will result in anyone attempting to “jump the queue” of the legal migration system and enter UK illegally, for asylum or otherwise, will be “swiftly and humanely removed” to the African country.
Home Secretary Priti Patel, who signed the deal in the Rwandan capital of Kigali, added that the “vast majority” of those making the crossing would immediately be eligible. The Rwandan government said that the asylum seekers would be “entitled to full protection under Rwandan law, equal access to employment, and enrollment in healthcare and social care services”.
Earlier today we visited one of the accommodation blocks where migrants sent from the UK will live while their asylum claims are processed.
They will stay in complexes like this hostel in the north-east of the capital city Kigali for up to three months: pic.twitter.com/3tT0pPxkAG
— Matt Dathan (@matt_dathan) April 14, 2022
“This innovative approach… will provide safe and legal routes for asylum, while disrupting the business model of the gangs,” Johnson argued. “The deal we’ve done is uncapped, and Rwanda will have the capacity to settle tens of thousands of people in the years ahead.”
Johnson, who won his strong majority in the 2019 election, argued that the British people have now “voted several times” to control the borders, and “just as Brexit allowed us to take back control of legal immigration, by replacing free movement with our points-based system, we’re also taking back control of illegal immigration, with a long-term plan for asylum in this country.”
Boris Johnson: 'Just as Brexit allowed us to take back control of legal immigration by replacing free movement with our points-based system, we are also taking back control of illegal immigration, with a long-term plan for asylum in this country.' pic.twitter.com/jsUi5aG0zG
— GB News (@GBNEWS) April 14, 2022
Johnson noted that, as independent journalist Steve Laws told Valiant News, the vast majority of people making the crossing over the English Channel illegally are fighting-aged men paying people smugglers, which the Prime Minister described as “perverse,” given they were travelling from one safe country to another, not fleeing “imminent peril.”
“There are currently 80 million displaced people in the world,” Johnson argued, adding that the answer to mass poverty is not for “the UK to be the haven for all of them,” and that anyone arguing as such is simply calling for “open borders by the back door, a political argument masquerading as a humanitarian policy.”
The Prime Minister also confirmed that the Royal Navy would be taking over “operational command” from the UK Border Force in the English Channel, “with the aim that no boat makes it to the UK undetected.” Around £50 million would be set aside for new boats and surveillance capabilities.
'If you risk other people’s lives in the Channel, you risk spending your own life in prison.'
Boris Johnson says the Royal Navy will take over operational command from Border Force in the Channel from today and will send a clear message to people smugglers. pic.twitter.com/AqsIM8bAzU
— GB News (@GBNEWS) April 14, 2022
The Prime Minister said that the government expected their plan to move asylum seekers to Rwanda to be challenged in the courts.
“If this country is seen as a soft touch for illegal migration,” Johnson argued, “it is precisely because we have such a formidable army of politically motivated lawyers, who for years have made it their business to thwart removals and frustrate the government.”
“I promise that we will do whatever it takes to implement this new approach,” he added, standing firm against potential pro-migration lawsuits, confirming that the government would “explore any and all further legal reforms where necessary” to make this new policy work.
However, the plan had faced criticism from Nigel Farage, the former leader of UKIP and founder of the Brexit Party, who suggested that the plans were only a “short-term solution,” and that instead boats should be pushed back in the English Channel. Johnson claimed the circumstances in which you could implement that safely are “extremely limited.”
Of more concern to immigration hawks, it seems that part of the deal with Rwanda would be that the UK would take “a portion of Rwanda’s most vulnerable refugees” back over to Britain. It is unclear how many this would amount to.
Alp Mehmet, Chairman of Migration Watch UK, spoke to GB News, and said that if the policy was “properly and firmly implemented, it will certainly discourage” immigrants, who he again noted are “young, working age men.” Mehmet explained, “By and large that’s what they are, who are coming here looking for a better life.”
The plans were unsurprisingly also criticised by the left and pro-mass migration NGOs.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council said she was “appalled by the government’s cruel and nasty decision,” with Labour leader Keir Starmer arguing the scheme was “unworkable, unethical, and extortionate.”
Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK’s refugee and migrant rights director, alleged that Rwanda has a “dismal human rights record,” and that sending asylum seekers there was “the very height of irresponsibility.” However, Rwanda, Johnson argued, was one of the safest countries in the world, having been described as the “Singapore of Africa.”
In a snap YouGov poll, the plan was opposed by the general population 42% to 35%. However, the plan was popular with a majority of both Conservative voters and Brexit supporters, with 59% and 57% of those groups backing it.
We're taking back control of our borders.
At every turn Labour and the Lib Dems have voted against our plans 👇 pic.twitter.com/TNRmThAwpI
— Conservatives (@Conservatives) April 14, 2022
