UK plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, says UN human rights chief Exclusive: Volker Türk reproachful of plan he considers morally risky and accepts government should take a gander at how to manage human sneaking posses and the treatment of evacuees
Volker Türk, the UN high official for common liberties, talking at a public interview at the UN workplaces in Geneva, Switzerland, on 9 December 2022.
“You cannot offshore your responsibilities in the manner that [the UK government] envisages.” The UN’s high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk. Photograph: Supported by guardian.org, Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images Lizzy Davies Wed, 21 Dec 2022 14:41 GMT The new UN human rights chief has urged the British government to reconsider its plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, pointing out that similar “offshoring” schemes have previously resulted in the treatment of refugees that is “deeply inhuman.”
Volker Türk rejected prime minister Rishi Sunak’s claim that the £140 million deal was “common sense” in his first public comments on the controversy since taking office two months ago. He said that in addition to being legally and ethically problematic, the deal was also “very costly” and unlikely to work.
Rwanda strategy: Individual cases were found to have numerous flaws by judges. Read more: Türk told the Guardian, “You cannot offshore your responsibilities to another state in the way that is envisaged by the UK government.” From an international refugee law and human rights perspective, it does raise very serious concerns.
He responded, “Yes, the government should go back to the drawing board.” Absolutely, yes.
The high court rejected an application to stop it from asylum seekers, charities, and a border officials’ union on Monday, ruling that the Conservatives’ plan to send people seeking protection in the UK to the central African nation was legal.
The victory was only partial because judges also said that the government had failed to “properly consider the circumstances” of eight people it had tried to deport under the scheme in June. In one case, the court said, the government had confused facts about one Syrian Kurd with another Syrian, which was “not an immaterial error.”
However, the home secretary quickly stated that she would move forward with the partnership “at scale and as soon as possible.” Suella Braverman said that she was supported by the “overwhelming majority of the British people” in her desire to end the gangs that helped asylum seekers cross the Channel.
In 2022, the number of people who crossed the Channel in small boats was the highest since records began to be kept in 2018. The trip is dangerous: Four people perished last week when their boat ran aground off the coast of Kent.
UK plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, says UN human rights chief Exclusive: Volker Türk reproachful of plan he considers morally risky and accepts government should take a gander at how to manage human sneaking posses and the treatment of evacuees
Volker Türk, the UN high official for common liberties, talking at a public interview at the UN workplaces in Geneva, Switzerland, on 9 December 2022.
“You cannot offshore your responsibilities in the manner that [the UK government] envisages.” The UN’s high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk. Photograph: Supported by guardian.org, Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images Lizzy Davies Wed, 21 Dec 2022 14:41 GMT The new UN human rights chief has urged the British government to reconsider its plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, pointing out that similar “offshoring” schemes have previously resulted in the treatment of refugees that is “deeply inhuman.”
Volker Türk rejected prime minister Rishi Sunak’s claim that the £140 million deal was “common sense” in his first public comments on the controversy since taking office two months ago. He said that in addition to being legally and ethically problematic, the deal was also “very costly” and unlikely to work.
Rwanda strategy: Individual cases were found to have numerous flaws by judges. Read more: Türk told the Guardian, “You cannot offshore your responsibilities to another state in the way that is envisaged by the UK government.” From an international refugee law and human rights perspective, it does raise very serious concerns.
He responded, “Yes, the government should go back to the drawing board.” Absolutely, yes.
The high court rejected an application to stop it from asylum seekers, charities, and a border officials’ union on Monday, ruling that the Conservatives’ plan to send people seeking protection in the UK to the central African nation was legal.
The victory was only partial because judges also said that the government had failed to “properly consider the circumstances” of eight people it had tried to deport under the scheme in June. In one case, the court said, the government had confused facts about one Syrian Kurd with another Syrian, which was “not an immaterial error.”
However, the home secretary quickly stated that she would move forward with the partnership “at scale and as soon as possible.” Suella Braverman said that she was supported by the “overwhelming majority of the British people” in her desire to end the gangs that helped asylum seekers cross the Channel.
In 2022, the number of people who crossed the Channel in small boats was the highest since records began to be kept in 2018. The trip is dangerous: Four people perished last week when their boat ran aground off the coast of Kent.
After a large search and rescue operation launched in the Channel off the coast of Dungeness, four people died last week when a small boat got into trouble in the Channel off the coast of Kent. Police forensic officers now head to the forensic tents set up at the RNLI station in the Port of Dover. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA The Rwandan government claims that it can accommodate about 200 people at the moment, which is less than 0.5 percent of the total number of people who have crossed this year and, according to rights groups, is not nearly large enough to act as a deterrent.
In October, Türk, who took over from Michelle Bachelet as the UN’s high commissioner for human rights, said that governments could fight smuggling gangs and make sure that people who need protection get it.
He added that the Rwanda program would probably accomplish neither.
“Of course, sending people to Rwanda looks very dramatic – but is it going to do the trick?” He stated, ” Which entails ensuring that those who require international refugee protection are acknowledged as such and discouraged from applying? If you just look at some of the things that we witnessed in the Australian context, history actually demonstrates that, which I strongly doubt.
Türk, an Austrian lawyer and former UN refugee agency assistant high commissioner, stated that he had witnessed human rights violations at Australia’s offshore processing centers on Nauru and Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. The latter was declared illegal by the country’s highest court, which led to its closure.
Türk stated, “The treatment of asylum seekers in Nauru and Manus was deeply, deeply inhuman.” The UK government insists that the deportees will have their asylum claims processed by Rwanda in accordance with international human rights law and will not be detained while that process is ongoing, calling any comparison between the two schemes “fundamentally wrong.”
The prime minister expressed his desire to implement “a system whereby, if you come to the UK illegally, you will not have the right to stay and we will be able to return you to your own country if it’s safe or a safe alternative like Rwanda” in response to the high court’s decision.
Türk stated, speaking from Geneva, ” It certainly defies common sense, in my opinion. Additionally, having previously criticized Braverman’s “horrible” use of the word “invasion” to describe the cross-Channel crossings, he urged the government to tone down its rhetoric and “emotional language.”
It’s not that there aren’t problems with unscheduled arrivals. That is evident and a problem that must be resolved; however, we must eliminate the emotions, including some of the emotional language. He stated, “We must approach it as a matter governed by international standards, international rights, and international refugee law.”
Asylum seekers will not be able to board a flight to Kigali anytime soon, despite the high court’s decision. There are likely to be additional appeals. “until three weeks after delivery of the final domestic decision in ongoing judicial review proceedings,” an injunction issued by a European court of human rights in the summer prevented any deportations.
A spokesperson for the Home Office stated: Our ground-breaking migration partnership with Rwanda will disrupt the business model of people-smuggling gangs and provide relocated individuals with assistance in establishing new lives there.
“The home secretary is committed to making it work to help prevent dangerous, illegal, and unnecessary journeys. The high court found it to be legal on Monday.
“It is fundamentally incorrect and inaccurate to compare this policy to the Australian model; People who are sent to Rwanda under our strategy are not detained; rather, they are relocated and given the option to leave at any time.
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