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UK controversial plan to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda

Posted on 19 April 2022

Britain's Home Secretary Priti Patel and Rwanda's Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta on Friday signed a deal that will send some asylum-seekers to be detained in Rwanda (6400km away). The British government said the deal would help stop people-smugglers sending desperate migrants on treacherous journeys across the English Channel.

Rights groups and refugee organisations swiftly blasted what they called a “cruel”, “inhumane” and “neo-colonial” plan, and questioned both its cost to the British taxpayers and effect on migration.

“It’s truly shocking and inhumane,” said Steve Valdez-Symonds, the refugee and migrant rights programme director at Amnesty International UK.