– The (British) government has entered into agreements with the Rwandan government which ensures that the asylum applications that are moved to Rwanda are properly processed there, said judge Clive Lewis when the ruling was made public today. People arriving in the UK hidden in lorries, or on boats across the English Channel, can now be sent to East Africa. In April, the British government entered into an agreement with Rwanda. The former will pay 140 million pounds. The latter have undertaken to accept asylum seekers, process their applications and grant residence to those whose asylum applications are approved. The proposal was criticized from several quarters. The UK has paid Rwanda NOK 1.5 billion for them to accept asylum seekers that the UK does not want. Photo: SIMON WOHLFAHRT / AFP Empty prisons after the genocide Law professor Mads Andenæs says that Rwanda is an ideal place, if the intention is for the asylum seekers to stay away from the UK. The country has neither a coast nor large rivers. The location makes it difficult to get back to Europe. After the genocide in the early 90s, 100,000 people were imprisoned. Most of these have been released, freeing up thousands of prison places. Andenæs visited several of the prisons when he was the UN’s special rapporteur on arbitrary imprisonment. The conclusion after the visits is crystal clear. – It is not justifiable to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. There are political imprisonments and forced disappearances over a low shoe, says the law professor. Andenæs adds that leading human rights organizations criticize Rwanda for serious human rights violations. Former inmates say that they have been beaten up by guards and have not been given access to food and necessary medicine. After the genocide in the early 90s, 100,000 people were imprisoned, most of whom have been released, which has freed up thousands of prison places Photo: RODRIQUE NGOWI / AP Andenæs has worked in the UK for several years and was also sent to Rwanda by the British government, to investigate the country’s political system. He is still not surprised by today’s ruling in the British Supreme Court. – The British courts are under great political pressure, and in such cases where the individual has the greatest need for protection, the courts are not always as well able to do their job, says Andenæs. – There would have been an outcry if the court had concluded otherwise than it did. Law professor Mads Andenæs says that Rwanda is an ideal place, if the aim is for the asylum seekers to stay away from Europe. The country is located in the middle of Africa with no access to the coast or river transport. Photo: Benjamin Vorland Andersrød The proposal to send asylum seekers to Africa has the majority in the British Parliament. Andenæs says that the case will be appealed and that it is not compatible with human rights. – You have the right to have your asylum case processed in the country you arrive. This case will not stand up in terms of international law or human rights, says Andenæs. Record number of boat refugees Several people have criticized the British government’s bill when it came up this spring. Both celebrities such as the then Prince Charles, actress Emma Thompson and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. When the first flight of asylum seekers was ready to take off on the runway at Gatwick, it was stopped. The European Court of Human Rights intervened. They made an emergency decision that prevented the refugees from being sent to Rwanda. Beate Ekeløve-Slydal is a political adviser at Amnesty International Norway, she says that the intention behind the agreement is to prevent people on the run from coming to the UK. One would prefer not to have them in Europe at all. – When, against all odds, they manage to get to Europe, the UK now deprives them of their basic human right to apply for and receive asylum in the UK, says the Amnesty adviser. Photo: Mohammes Alayoubi – They say they are doing this so that people on the run do not have to make the dangerous journey from France to Britain, but today there are no safe and legal routes for people on the run to Europe. This year, 44,000 people fled across the English Channel. Never before have so many arrived as boat refugees in the UK in one year. – When, against all odds, they manage to get to Europe, Britain deprives them of their basic human right to apply for and receive asylum there, says the Amnesty adviser. The British Supreme Court claims that the agreement concluded with Rwanda does not violate human rights. – In these circumstances, moving asylum seekers to Rwanda is compatible with the Refugee Convention and with other legal agreements entered into by the government, including Human Rights, Supreme Court judge Clive Lewis said today. – I have no doubt that we will eventually get an arrangement where we send asylum seekers to third countries, says Immigration and integration policy spokesperson in the FRP, Erlend Wiborg. Photo: Ole Berg-Rusten / NTB – Will be voted through in Norway In Norway, the FRP has put forward proposals to send asylum seekers to third countries several times. The last time the proposal was voted down in the Storting was in November. – I have no doubt that we will eventually get an arrangement where we send asylum seekers to third countries, says immigration and integration policy spokesperson in the FRP, Erlend Wiborg. He says that the FRP will put forward the proposal again, as soon as some of the parties that voted it down last time turn around. – I’m just afraid it will take many years before we get there. Wiborg is pleased that the British court has come to this conclusion, but is not surprised. – This proposal has been thoroughly investigated by both Great Britain and Denmark. We already showed that it did not break the law. Wiborg says that this solution is in the best interests of genuine asylum seekers, while it punishes “lucky hunters”. He explains that Norway cannot be the world’s “social office”. – Genuine asylum seekers have the right to stay in a country without bullets and gunpowder. But being able to benefit from the Norwegian welfare system is not part of the asylum mission. Refugees from Africa who wish to apply for asylum in the UK may end up becoming asylum seekers in the East African country of Rwanda. Photo: BEN STANSALL / AFP The Frp has not fully investigated which third country they want to send asylum seekers to. The spokesman for Rwanda’s government assured the British this summer that the country will be a good recipient country for asylum seekers. – We have been asked: why don’t refugees come to Rwanda? Part of the answer is the narrative that Africa is a shithole, for lack of a better word, Yolande Makolo told – This is not true. And it is an insult to us, the spokesman for Rwanda’s government told the British newspaper The Guardian in June.
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The UK is allowed to send people to Rwanda – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
