Why Is UK Sending Asylum Seekers To Rwanda? – Free PDF Download

• The United Kingdom has signed a deal with Rwanda to send some asylum seekers to the East African nation — a move that Prime Minister Boris Johnson said will “save countless lives” from human trafficking.
• The main target of the pilot scheme will be single men arriving on boats or lorries.

What is the Plan?

• Under this new plan, people who arrive in Britain as stowaways in trucks or boats will be flown 6,400 kilometers to Rwanda, potentially for good. Once there, they will be assessed for eventual resettlement in the African nation.
• The UK government said that it may start sending asylum seekers on one-way flights to Rwanda within weeks.

• The UK has paid the Rwandan government £120 million for housing and integrating the migrants as part of the pilot scheme, which will initially last for five years.
• The agreement seeks to ensure “that people are protected, respected, and empowered to further their own ambitions and settle permanently in Rwanda if they choose.”

What is the aim of the new scheme?

• According to Priti Patel (British Home Secretary), the plan aims to improve the UK’s asylum system, which according to her has been struggling to deal with “a combination of real humanitarian crises and evil people smugglers profiteering by exploiting the system for their own gains.”
• PM Johnson said that the scheme would break the business model of traffickers and disrupt the flow of illegal migration, while leaving “lots of capacity for the very generous safe and legal routes” into the UK.

How much will this scheme cost?

• The Times reported that it could potentially cost between £20,000-30,000 for each migrant who is sent to Rwanda. However, the UK government has declined to disclose an exact figure. Critics of the scheme have called it a waste of public money.
• The UK was already spending almost £5 million every day on hotels. In comparison to that, the UK’s £120 million payment to the Rwandan government for the first five years seems far more feasible.

How many refugees enter the UK via the channel?

• Just last year, over 28,000 people entered the UK in boats, up from 8,500 in 2020. For years, migrants have travelled to the UK, using northern France as a launching point, by hiding in trucks and ferries.
• With the pandemic shutting down most routes in 2020, many opted to travel in small boats organised by traffickers. Dozens have not survived the trip, drowning in the bitter cold waters of the English Channel.
• Last November, 27 people died after an inflatable boat carrying migrants bound for Britain capsized.

Why has the scheme been criticised?

• Several activists, refugee and human rights organisations have strongly opposed the new scheme.
• Highlighting the dangers of transferring refugees and asylum seekers to third countries without sufficient safeguards, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said they must “not be traded like commodities and transferred abroad for processing.”

• Human Rights Watch flagged “Rwanda’s appalling human rights record”. “Rwanda has a known track record of extrajudicial killings, suspicious deaths in custody, unlawful orarbitrary detention, torture, and abusive prosecutions, particularly targeting critics and dissidents.
• In fact, the UK directly raised its concerns about respect for human rights with Rwanda, and grants asylum to Rwandans who have fled the country, including four just last year,” it said in a statement.
• “At a time when the people of the UK have opened their hearts and homes to Ukrainians, the government is choosing to act with cruelty and rip up their obligations to others fleeing war and persecution.”
• Meanwhile, Amnesty International UK called the plan “shockingly ill-conceived”.
• Opposition leaders in the UK have also slammed the scheme, with some calling it “unworkable” and “extortionate” and an attempt to distract from PM Johnson’s latest ‘party gate’ controversy.

Do any other countries send asylum seekers overseas?

• Yes, several other countries — including Australia, Israel and Denmark — have been sending asylum seekers overseas.

Australia

• Australia first began using offshore detention centres in 2001.
• And in 2013, it hardened its immigration law to deny resettlement visas to asylum seekers arriving by boat.
• Its Border Force has said more than 4,000 were relocated between 2012 and 2019.

Israel

• Israel, too, chose to deal with a growing influx of asylum seekers and illegal immigrants from places like Sudan and Eritrea by striking deals with third countries.
• Those rejected for asylum were given the choice of returning to their home country or accepting $3,500 and a plane ticket to one of the third countries. They faced the threat of arrest if they chose to remain in Israel.

Denmark

• The Danish government has not been shy about its goal of “zero” refugees in Denmark.
• Last June, legislation was passed that would allow it to move asylum seekers to third countries outside the EU while their cases were processed.

Question:
Which of the following are the conditions for acquiring Indian Citizenship?

1. Domicile & Descent
2. Domicile, Descent & Registration
3. Domicile, Descent, Registration and Holding Property
4. None of these

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