Category Archives: Rwanda

Exclusive: Most Voters Do Not Believe Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda Plan Will Stop The Boats

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Most voters do not believe that Rishi Sunak’s flagship Rwanda plan will help him stop the small boats carrying asylum seekers across the Channel, HuffPost UK can reveal.

Polling by the More in Common think-tank shows that barely one in four people (27%) think it will reduce the numbers making the perilous journey.

By contrast, 47% believe it will make no difference and a further 8% think it will lead to more refugees coming to the UK.

The poll also shows that nearly half of voters – 45% – think ministers should not break international law to make the deportation policy work, compared to 32% who think they should.

Overall, fewer than half – 46% – say they support the policy of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda, compared to 28% who do not.

The findings are a major blow for the prime minister, who has staked his personal authority on getting flights to Rwanda off the ground.

Luke Tryl, More in Common’s UK director, said: “It continues to be the case that more people support the Rwanda project than not – although crucially not a majority.

“The truth is that for all the political capital that has been spent on the Rwanda project, the public just don’t think that it is going to work and there continues to be limited public support for the UK to break international law in order to try and get flights off the ground.

“It does make you question the wisdom of making this the centrepiece of the Tories plans to tackle illegal immigration – and issue which itself is important to voters.”

Last Tuesday, Sunak won a crunch vote in the Commons on the Safety of Rwanda Bill, which the PM said is vital to finally getting flights to Rwanda off the ground.

It was drawn up after the Supreme Court last month ruled the scheme illegal because of the risk of asylum seekers being sent from the east African country to another nation.

More in Common polled 2,041 adults between December 12 and 14.

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Sky News Presenter Mocks Tory Minister Over Government’s Stalled Rwanda Plan

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A Tory minister was told that the only person the government has managed to send to Rwanda is home secretary James Cleverly as a Sky News presenter mocked the stalled policy.

Rishi Sunak’s aim of deporting asylum seekers to the east African country was dealt a hammer blow last month when the Supreme Court ruled it was unlawful.

The prime minister has pledged to introduce “emergency legislation” too address the judges’ concerns about the policy.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Times reports today the government is planning to give the Rwandan government another £15 million to secure a new immigration treaty between the two countries.

On Trevor Phillips on Sunday this morning, health secretary Victoria Atkins was put on the spot over the policy’s ongoing problems.

Phillips told her: “The only person who seems to be on their way to Rwanda at the moment actually is the home secretary, James Cleverly. There’s no asylum seekers going there any time soon.

″When he was here, he told me they were going to introduce emergency legislation urgently to make it possible to send asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing and that was weeks ago.

″It can’t be that much of an emergency because we haven’t seen the legislation.”

Atkins replied: “We are very much working across government on this. It will take a little bit of time to draw up this legislation because we want to make sure it’s in the right form.”

Asked if the legislation would be ready by Christmas, she would only say: “I know that the home secretary is working incredibly hard and quickly on this.”

Sunak is under huge pressure from his backbenchers to get flights to Rwanda off the ground to give him a chance of meeting his pledge to “stop the boats” carrying asylum seekers across the Channel.

But the cabinet is split over whether the new legislation should give the government the right to ignore rulings under the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act.

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Keir Starmer Says He Would Scrap The Rwanda Scheme Even If It Is Legal And Working

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Keir Starmer has vowed to axe the government’s Rwanda policy even if it is ruled legal and shown to be working.

The Labour leader said he would introduce a “pragmatic plan” to deal with the problem of small boats carrying asylum seekers across the English Channel if he becomes prime minister.

The Supreme Court will this week beginning hearing the government’s case as to why their plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda does not breach international law.

But appearing on the BBC this morning, Starmer said the scheme would be axed if Labour wins the next election.

Asked by presenter Victoria Derbyshire if he would scrap it even if the Supreme Court rules it is legal and it reduces the number of small boat crossings, Starmer said: “Yes. I believe it’s the wrong policy, it’s hugely expensive, it’s a tiny number of individuals who would go to Rwanda.”

Derbyshire replied: “Even if everybody can see that it’s working, the criminal gangs are declining, fewer people are getting in those boats, fewer people are drowning, you would still reverse it?”

Starmer said: “We’ve been told time and again by the government, even saying that they’ve got a Rwanda scheme would reduce the numbers – that hasn’t happened.”

The Labour leader said the small boat crossing would only stop once the criminal gangs organising the journeys are “smashed”.

He added: “As a pragmatist, I want a pragmatic plan that is actually going to fix this problem, not rhetoric which has got this government absolutely nowhere.”

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Question Time Audience Delivers Damning Verdict On Tory Rwanda Policy

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The government’s Rwanda policy was unanimously rejected by the audience of the BBC’s Question Time – despite most of them being Tory voters.

Not a single person put their hand up when asked by presenter Fiona Bruce asked who backed the controversial plan.

The damning verdict was delivered on the same day that the Court of Appeal ruled that the policy of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda to have their claims processed was illegal.

Bruce said: “We’re very careful how we select our audiences here and I’m not trying to overstate the importance – this is not a YouGov poll.

“But what I’m seeing here is that even though we have more people who voted Conservative than any other single party here, is there anyone here who supports sending people to Rwanda?”

When no one in the Exeter audience put their hand up, panel member and TV chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall shouted “good on you.”

Bruce then asked social care minister Helen Whately, who was also on the panel, if she had a response to the audience’s rejection of her government’s signature immigration policy.

She replied: “This is a very hard problem to solve and I think most of us feel that we want to be welcoming people and understand that people have made hard and difficult journeys to try and come to the UK and choose to get into a small boat.”

The results of the straw poll also fly in the face of claims made today by home secretary Suella Braverman when she said the majority of British people back the Rwanda policy.

Rishi Sunak has said the government will appeal against the court’s ruling as he tries to salvage his promise to “stop the boats” carrying migrants across the Channel.

He said: “The policy of this government is very simple, it is this country – and your government – who should decide who comes here, not criminal gangs. And I will do whatever is necessary to make that happen.”

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Ash Sarkar: Tory Migration Crackdown Is A ‘Nastiness Olympics’

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Journalist Ash Sarkar has confronted Tory minister Helen Whately over the government’s controversial migration crackdown – accusing the administration of indulging in a “nastiness Olympics” to please the Daily Mail.

The accusation came on BBC’s Question Time, which this week came from Bexhill-on-Sea, and was prompted by the Archbishop of Canterbury condemning the government’s plans to tackle the small boats crisis as “morally unacceptable and politically impractical”.

The intervention by Justin Welby sparked criticism of the church leader at Westminster, who was told neither “handwringing or bell ringing” will solve the misery of the channel crossings.

Th immigration reforms aim to ensure those who arrive in the UK without permission will be detained and promptly removed, either to their home country or a third country such as Rwanda. Meanwhile, asylum seekers are being housed in barracks and barges.

On the show, Sarkar said proposed new laws were treating “people who have been raped, people who have been tortured, people who are fleeing persecution” as “criminals”.

The writer went on: “I object so strongly when you use these words like ‘generosity’, to talk about things like having a glorified prison ship or refurbishing a prison just around the corner from here in order to detain people who are fleeing some of the most unimaginable circumstances possible.

“No government does that because they think it’s morally good. No government does that because they think it’s particularly efficient or effective.

“You’re doing it because you’ve committed yourself to this nastiness Olympics because you want a pat on the back from the Daily Mail and the human cost of that is obscene.”

Whately had argued 500,000 migrants coming to the UK since 2015, and people opening their homes to Ukrainians, showed the UK is a “generous country on offering asylum” – but it was “morally wrong” not to crackdown on people smugglers fuelling the problem.

On the same question, broadcaster and clergyman Rev Richard Coles called the illegal migration bill “politically unworkable, legally doubtful and morally indefensible”, adding he supported Welby’s position.

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Adil Ray Sparks Firey GMB Row By Pointing Out A Pretty Major Flaw In Rwanda Policy

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Good Morning Britain’s Adil Ray locked horns with a guest on Thursday morning after he pointed out an obvious inconsistency in its approach to refugees.

While presenting the ITV show, Adil was discussing the government’s failed attempts to fly asylum seekers who arrive at British shores via illegal means to Rwanda with The Times’ political sketch writer Quentin Letts.

Explaining how Ukrainians seeking refuge here were able to apply online while the process for those coming from other countries, such as war-torn Afghanistan, was more difficult, Adil said: “The Afghans do not have an online visa system.”

When Letts tried to say he wasn’t sure if there was a system available to the Afghans looking to resettle in the UK, Adil interjected: “I’m telling you there’s not.”

Looking exasperated, Letts said: “You’ve asked me on this programme, you never let me actually answer a question.

“There are procedures, there are perfectly legal procedures, for people to come in. But what the people using the boats are doing is they’re paying money to scoot around the rules.”

Migrants who arrive into the UK by crossing the Channel are at the centre of the government’s new policy.

The Home Office has repeatedly justified this controversial new approach by claiming the route is unsafe and that the human traffickers who send the asylum seekers across must be deterred.

For comparison, the government opened up several different schemes to help home Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion following intense public pressure.

But, as Adil pointed out, many people travelling to the UK across the Channel are doing so “because there are no legal routes” available for them.

“There are legal routes,” Letts said in response.

“There aren’t actually,” he persisted.

Adil and Letts continued to speak over each other, until the guest eventually said: “I give up! There’s no point.”

“It’s my job to correct you, Quentin,” the GMB presenter explained.

“It’s not actually, your job is – you ask me a question, and you don’t let me answer it.”

“That’s not the point,” Adil continued. “Do you accept that first of all, there aren’t the legal routes, there isn’t an online system like the Ukrainians have.”

“Look, people on the boats are paying money to smugglers to get round the rules.”

“Because there are no legal routes.”

Letts sighed loudly and said, “forget it,” waving his hand dismissively.

The presenter persisted: “You can’t avoid that question.”

“There’s no point talking to you,” gesturing to the other people sat on the GMB panel, Letts added: “Four of you against me, it’s just absolutely pointless.”

At which point the other presenter, Kate Garraway, chipped in: “No one’s against you! It’s about looking at the facts.”

The clash comes two days after the European Court of Human Rights ruled against the first Rwanda flight which was supposed to take refugees out of the country.

The sudden move from the European court has left some factions in the Conservative Party furious, while the government has promised it will not give up on its attempts to remove illegal immigrants to East Africa.

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