Ground the Whole Rwanda Plan
Stopping last night’s deportation flight was a victory for activists across the country who fought to defend asylum seeker rights. Now it’s time for the scheme itself to be scrapped.
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Raoul Walawalker is a freelance journalist with interests in politics, social affairs, and migration.
Stopping last night’s deportation flight was a victory for activists across the country who fought to defend asylum seeker rights. Now it’s time for the scheme itself to be scrapped.
While anger is focused on the brutal Rwanda scheme, the Tories have also quietly announced new ‘camps’ to house asylum seekers in isolated locations in Britain – yet another attack on people seeking sanctuary.
This week’s announcement of a plan to offshore refugees to Rwanda was a cynical attempt to divert from Tory scandals – once again, reducing some of the world’s most vulnerable people to pawns in a PR game.
Out of 28,300 applications, just 2,700 visas have been issued to refugees through Homes for Ukraine – suggesting the scheme is more about deflecting political pressure than solidarity with those fleeing war.
When Putin invaded Ukraine, Britain’s government pledged to do whatever it could to support the victims of war – but its failure to follow Europe in waiving visas for refugees shows that those commitments were little more than words.
From criminalising aid workers to barbed-wire prisons and pushbacks at sea, Greece’s right-wing government is waging a war on migrants – and providing a model that Priti Patel is keen to follow.
The government has long worked to create a permanent limbo for asylum seekers. Despite new pledges, this will be the welcome many of those arriving from Afghanistan receive.
Consultation ends today on the Home Office’s ‘New Plan for Immigration’ – a set of provisions that will make life for asylum seekers even harder, and further entrench the Hostile Environment.