The UK signs a new migration agreement with Rwanda

On Tuesday 5 December, UK Home Secretary James Cleverley traveled to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, to visit Negotiate again With the government of the African country, the agreement signed by CEO Boris Johnson in 2022 was invalidated by the British Supreme Court as illegal.

• Context. The deportation policy designed by Chief Executive Boris Johnson to outsource the management of asylum seekers to a third country consists of an immigration agreement for Rwanda to welcome refugee seekers who arrive on British soil across the English Channel. But the plan was not implemented, either because of the intervention of the European Court of Human Rights or because of the intervention of the internal justice system itself, which decided in mid-November that this measure would violate international law and British legislation.

The new agreement reached between the British Home Secretary and Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta seeks to address “all the concerns of the Supreme Court judges,” according to what was reported on the “Reuters” website. precise Smartly at a press conference in Kigali to explain the agreement.

• Supreme Court ruling. Specifically, the UK court ruling warned of the Rwandan government’s inability to guarantee migrants’ rights when processing their asylum claims and avoiding their return to their countries of origin. “There are serious reasons to believe that transferring the applicants to Rwanda would expose them to a real risk of ill-treatment due to refoulement. He therefore correctly declared the Secretary of State’s policy to be unlawful.” they write Judges at the end of the sentence.

However, the Supreme Court ruling acknowledged the possibility of changes addressing its conclusions; “This treaty responds directly to that,” Cleverly said at the press conference.

Sunak’s new deal: Ensure people transferred to Rwanda are not returned to their home countries

As indicated by the launch On Tuesday 5 December, the UK Government released the new agreement ensuring that “people transferred to Rwanda are not at risk of being returned to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened, an act known as return”.

The agreement also “strengthens the tasks of the Independent Monitoring Committee – made up of eight independent members – to ensure compliance with treaty obligations, such as reception conditions, processing of asylum claims or support for deported migrants, even for up to five years after their status has been finally determined.”

This monitoring committee will develop a system that will allow transferees and their legal representatives to submit confidential complaints directly to it. You will have the ability to define your own priority areas of supervision and unlimited access to full assessments and reports. It may publish such reports as it deems appropriate on its findings.

To further strengthen guarantees that transferred persons will not be returned, “Rwanda’s asylum system will be strengthened by New appellate bodyThe Appeals Body will consist of two presidents, one Rwandan and the other from the Commonwealth, in addition to judges of different nationalities with experience in the field of asylum and humanitarian protection.

After signing this treaty, the UK Parliament is committed to passing a legal text confirming that Rwanda is a safe country.

UK immigration data

Until September of this year37,350 people crossed the waters of the English Channel to reach the English coast. As we say at Newtral.es, in 2022, the authorities discovered that 45,755 people arrived through the canal. It is a number that is growing: in 2021, there were 28,526; In 2020, 8,466 migrants were intercepted; In 2019 to 1843 and in 2018 to 299 people.

However, Rishi Sunak’s government is concerned about the overall number of migrants, both irregular and legal. according to data According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the record was reached in 2022 at 745,000 people. For this year, the statistical agency’s provisional estimate is 672,000 people. With the goal of reducing it by 300,000, the British executive on Tuesday, December 5, introduced a series of measures to make it difficult for legal immigrants such as students, workers and dependent family members to enter the United Kingdom.