The government has portrayed the agreement as a humanitarian measure. But the results of similar buck-passing policies elsewhere have been mixed
WHEN EUROPE opened its doors to millions of Ukrainians fleeing Russian bombs, advocates of refugees’ rights hoped that would signal a warmer welcome to people escaping persecution in other parts of the world. On April 13th Britain dampened that hope. It signed a pilot-scheme agreement with Rwanda, an African country 4,500 miles away, to accept asylum-seekers who arrive in Britain “illegally”.
Britain’s attempt to outsource the processing and settlement of asylum-seekers is the latest in a series of measures taken by governments to “externalise” responsibility for dealing with them. Australia pioneered the concept. In 2012 it began shipping migrants who arrived by boat to Papua New Guinea and Nauru in the south-western Pacific.
The results of such buck-passing policies are mixed. Australia’s initiative was cruel, costly and ineffective. In 2016 Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said 1,200 people who had been transferred to Nauru had suffered “severe abuse, inhumane treatment, and neglect”. Australia spends about A$1bn a year to house what is now thought to be a few hundred people. On its own the policy did not deter migrants: in its first year the number of asylum-seekers arriving by boat hit a record high.
Britain’s deal with Rwanda is supposed to deter asylum-seekers from venturing across the channel and, if they still make the journey, provide a safer alternative to. After an initial screening in Britain, asylum-seekers will be deported to Rwanda, whose government has agreed to give them secure and salubrious accommodation. They will not be subject to detention.
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