Category Archives: Rwanda

UK taxpayers to bear extra cost over Rwanda treaty

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Ministers have given more than £140m to Rwandan government in hope of sending asylum seekers to east Africa

British taxpayers will bear extra costs after the signing of a treaty on the deportation scheme for asylum seekers with the Rwandan government, the home secretary has said, as he asserted that the government was not pursuing “cheap and quick popularity”.

The new agreement will mean that the UK will pay for British and Commonwealth judges to preside over a newly established appeals process as well as the costs of all legal fees from anyone sent to the central African country.

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People arriving in UK via irregular means ‘to be deported to Rwanda before election’

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Immigration minister accuses people crossing Channel in small boats of ‘breaking into the country’

People arriving in the UK via irregular means will be deported to Rwanda before the next general election, according to Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, as the home secretary, James Cleverly, arrived in the country to sign a treaty paving the way for the policy.

Jenrick, who has taken an increasingly rightwing stance and hinted at his frustration with Downing Street’s perceived inaction on migration, also ramped up the rhetoric, accusing people crossing the Channel in small boats of “breaking into the country”.

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James Cleverly travels to Kigali to sign new treaty with Rwanda

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Domestic legislation also planned so parliament can assert country is a safe destination for asylum seekers

James Cleverly is travelling to Kigali to sign a new treaty with Rwanda, as Rishi Sunak responds to the UK supreme court’s ruling against the policy to send people there.

Domestic legislation is also planned so parliament could assert Rwanda is a safe destination for asylum seekers who arrive in Britain.

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Rishi Sunak ‘won’t allow foreign court to block’ Rwanda plan

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Centrist Tories urge PM not to abandon UK’s human rights commitments, but Sunak said his patience ‘worn thin’ by delays

Rishi Sunak has promised not to allow foreign courts to stop Britain sending asylum seekers to Rwanda, even as a group of more centrist Conservative MPs urges him not to abandon Britain’s international human rights commitments.

The prime minister said on Friday his patience was being “worn thin” by delays to the Rwanda plan, which was ruled illegal under domestic and international law by the supreme court last month.

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Rwandan courts will not protect refugees’ rights, say daughters of genocide hero

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Family of Paul Rusesabagina, who campaigned to have him freed from jail, say country’s justice system is a ‘tool to oppress people’

The Rwandan legal system is incapable of protecting refugees sent from the UK, according to the daughters of Paul Rusesabagina, the man who inspired the Oscar-nominated movie Hotel Rwanda.

Carine and Anaïse Kanimba campaigned for more than two years to secure the release of their father, who was freed from a Kigali jail after three years of incarceration earlier this year, and they have detailed first-hand knowledge of the true nature of the Rwandan legal system.

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UK and Rwanda ‘still committed’ to deal after reports Kigali is cooling

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Officials in the east African country are frustrated by delays in migrants arriving and negative attention scheme has engendered

The UK and Rwanda remain committed to their controversial migrant deportation deal, sources have said, after reports emerged that support in Kigali for the agreement had cooled because of the continual delays.

Westminster has already paid the Rwandan government more than £140m but nobody has been sent to the east African country yet. The first flight was scheduled for June 2022 but was cancelled after legal challenges.

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Home Office ‘loses’ 17,000 people whose asylum claims were withdrawn

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Tory MP queries claims marked withdrawn as government tries to clear backlog by end of year

Rishi Sunak has been accused of losing control of the UK’s borders after the Home Office admitted that it does not know the whereabouts of 17,000 people whose asylum claims have been withdrawn.

Amid a stalled Rwanda deportation scheme and rising costs for housing people seeking refuge in hotels, senior civil servants in the department were told by the Conservative MP and deputy party chair Lee Anderson they “hadn’t got a clue” after failing to provide answers on people seeking refuge in the UK or foreign offender removals.

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Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer clash over immigration and Parthenon marbles at PMQs – UK politics live

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Prime minister’s record shows he has the ‘reverse Midas touch’, Keir Starmer says

Back at the home affairs committee, Tim Loughton (Con) has just had another go at getting answers about the number of asylum applications that have been withdrawn. (See 10.38am.)

He said, when he said earlier 95% of withdrawn applications were categorised as withdrawn for “other” reasons (and not because the claims were not substantiated), he was quoting figures for the last quarter.

Whilst the prospect is perhaps what none of us would wish to plan for, I believe the reality will be that we will need to discharge Covid-19 positive patients into residential care settings for the reason you have noted.

This will be entirely clinically appropriate because the NHS will triage those to retain in acute settings who can benefit from that sector’s care.

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Sunak risks ripping up Good Friday agreement over Rwanda, senior Tories say

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Concerns echo White House remarks that blocking human rights laws could undermine Northern Ireland peace process

Rishi Sunak risks ripping up the Northern Ireland peace process if he blocks human rights laws so the UK can deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, senior Conservatives have said.

After similar concerns from the White House on Thursday, the MPs said widely reported plans from Downing Street to disregard parts of the Human Rights Act could undermine the Good Friday agreement and damage UK-US relations.

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Peers and MPs pledge to block Sunak’s Rwanda plan as Braverman labels it ‘magical thinking’

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Fast-track bill, after supreme court ruling barring deportation flights, would be ‘wildly unpopular legislation’ says Tory peer

Rishi Sunak’s target of flying out asylum seekers to Rwanda by next spring is in doubt, with opposition parties and some Conservative peers having pledged to try to block emergency legislation intended to rescue the plan.

In another blow to the prime minister, Suella Braverman, the home secretary that Sunak sacked on Monday, dismissed his ideas as “magical thinking”, setting out her own rival plan to make sure removals begin swiftly.

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UK government to present full law to set aside supreme court Rwanda decision

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Decision to table primary legislation in parliament puts in doubt Rishi Sunak’s aim for flights to begin leaving for Rwanda by spring

Rishi Sunak’s government will present a full law to parliament to set aside the supreme court’s ban on sending asylum seekers to Rwanda, setting up a probable battle with MPs and peers and putting in doubt the aim for flights to begin leaving by spring.

The law could be published within a fortnight, after next week’s autumn statement, and it will be primary legislation, meaning it will have to pass through all the normal stages of the Commons and Lords, Downing Street has said.

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No 10 says it will produce ‘emergency’ bill to show Rwanda safe country ‘in coming weeks’ – as it happened

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Downing Street says legislation will make clear ‘Rwanda is safe’ and will address court’s concerns after policy ruled unlawful. This live blog is closed

At his Institute for Government Q&A Sir Mark Rowley, commissioner of the Metropolitan police, refused to say what he felt about Lee Anderson, the Conservative party deputy chair, declaring yesterday that ministers should just ignore the supreme court judgment saying the Rwanda police was unlawful. Asked to respond, Rowley just said:

Politicians hold me to account, I don’t hold them to account.

Starmer travelled north of the border just hours after a revolt within his party over a ceasefire in Gaza resulted in the resignation of eight of his frontbenchers.

The Labour leader highlighted what he described as the “failure” of the UK government to negotiate a trade deal with India, a key exporter for Scotch whisky.

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UK ministers’ efforts to revive Rwanda policy likely to fail, lawyers say

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Government accused of ‘magical thinking’ and ignoring facts on the ground that led to supreme court judgment

Lawyers have said that UK ministers’ latest plans to get their high-profile Rwanda policy off the ground are unlikely to overcome the legal obstacles that defeated them in the supreme court on Wednesday.

After the five judges unanimously rejected the government’s plans to deport people seeking asylum in the UK to the east African country, Rishi Sunak said that he would ensure the flights could go ahead by legislating that Rwanda was safe.

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Cleverly ‘determined’ to get removal flight to Rwanda before general election

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Home secretary says legally binding treaty will be drafted ‘within days’ despite policy being ruled unlawful

Ministers are “absolutely determined” to get a removal flight to Rwanda off before the next election, and will finish drafting a legally binding treaty with the country “within days”, the home secretary, James Cleverly, has said, after the policy was ruled unlawful.

Cleverly, who was made home secretary in the reshuffle earlier this week, said the controversial policy was already having “a deterrent effect” on people smugglers.

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Rishi Sunak ‘working on new Rwanda treaty’ after deportation policy ruled unlawful – UK politics live

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Prime minister says he is prepared to ‘revisit legal frameworks’ to stop the boats as supreme court says policy is unlawful

Reed says the court has had to decide whether the Rwanda policy breaches the non-refoulement rule.

The policy is in the Home Office’s immigration rules, he says.

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Sunak pins hopes on a new Rwanda asylum pact after supreme court defeat

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Whitehall sources say it could take more than a year for any treaty to be passed, with next election looming

Rishi Sunak is attempting to finalise a new pact with Rwanda after a central plank of the British government’s immigration plans was ripped up by the supreme court.

A treaty, which would have to be ratified by the UK parliament, was being drawn up with the government in Kigali, the prime minister said.

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Win or lose, supreme court decision on Rwanda policy will be pivotal for Tories

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A victory for the immigration and asylum policy on Wednesday will come with headaches, but a defeat could split the Conservative party

Wednesday marks a potentially pivotal moment in the government’s fortunes when the supreme court rules whether its plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda is lawful.

The decision could have significant implications not just for immigration and asylum policy, but also for the future direction of Rishi Sunak’s government, and the Conservative party more widely. Here is what could follow from a government win or loss.

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Austria to work with UK on Rwanda-style plan for asylum seekers

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Suella Braverman signs ‘migration and security agreement’ with Austrian counterpart in move to work more closely together

Austria is seeking to adopt a Rwanda-style deal to deport asylum seekers to a third country, having agreed a deal to work with the UK on migration.

Suella Braverman signed a “migration and security agreement” with her Austrian counterpart, Gerhard Karner, in which the two countries agreed to work more closely together.

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Tuesday briefing: The global impact of UK supreme court’s ruling on Rwanda deportation plan

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In today’s newsletter: A complicated legal battle over whether the UK government plan to send thousands of migrants to Rwanda could cause a fundamental shift in how asylum seekers are treated

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Good morning. Five supreme court judges are this week deciding whether the UK government plan to deport tens of thousands of asylum seekers to Rwanda should go ahead.

The decision of the UK’s highest court will be life-changing for more than 24,000 asylum seekers issued with letters warning them that they are being considered for forcible removal. It will also either make home secretary Suella Braverman’s “dream” come true or poleaxe a key part of Rishi Sunak’s pledge to “stop the boats”.

Israel | The leaders of the UK, US, France, Germany and Italy have released a joint statement expressing “steadfast and united support” for the state of Israel and “unequivocal condemnation” of Hamas. Earlier, Israel declared a “complete siege” of Gaza, cutting off water, food and power supplies.

Environment | The damage caused by the climate crisis through extreme weather has cost $16m (£13m) an hour for the past 20 years, according to a new estimate.

Transport | A list of transport projects to be funded using HS2 money, which included schemes that had already been built or were swiftly deleted, was intended only to be “illustrative”, the prime minister has said.

Labour | A new Labour government would give all towns and cities in England new powers and funding to boost local economies, Keir Starmer will announce, in the biggest expansion of devolution since Labour was last in power.

Scotland | A hoard of coins linked to a Highland chief – which may have been stashed away as he tried in vain to escape the Glen Coe massacre – has been discovered underneath a fireplace.

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Rwanda accused of broad campaign of repression against dissidents

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Human Rights Watch report detailing alleged abuses at home and abroad raises questions over UK government’s asylum plan

Rwandan authorities are coordinating a systematic campaign of repression at home and abroad against political activists, suspected dissidents and their family members, according to a Human Rights Watch report, raising questions about plans by the UK government to send asylum seekers there.

The US-based rights group details an alleged campaign of extraterritorial killings, kidnappings and intimidation, as well as arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances on Rwandan soil.

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