A prominent opponent of the Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, has been barred from standing in next month’s election to challenge his three-decade rule. Diane Rwigara, the leader of the People Salvation Movement, who was also barred in 2017, launched her election bid in May and submitted her candidacy last week. Her name was...
Asylum seekers from Sudan, Eritrea and Afghanistan detained in government’s Operation Vector share their stories. When Helen arrived at Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre, she was taken to her cell and handed some cleaning spray and wipes and told to use them before making up her bed. She had no idea why she had been...
The Rwandan government has barred Clementine de Montjoye, a senior researcher in Human Rights Watch’s Africa division, from entering the country, prompting accusations that officials are seeking to dodge independent scrutiny just weeks before the UK government is due to send asylum seekers there for the first time.
Home Office officials fear the number of migrants deported on the first Rwanda flight could be in single figures because of legal challenges.
The concerns are believed to be behind moves to expand the scheme to include ALL failed asylum seekers on top of the initial cohort of 5,700 migrants so far earmarked for deportation.
Given Rwanda only has room for a few hundred currently, this is arrant nonsense and performative cruelty.
"The denial of entry reflects the authorities’ intensifying assault on human rights, months ahead of the country’s 2024 general elections, Human Rights Watch said."
The Northern Ireland Judge, Mr Justice Micheal Humphreys, ruled yesterday that the #Rwanda Safety Act and the deportation of #Refugess is incompatible with three prior legal standards and acts:
The b@stards at the #HomeOffice issued new guidance yesterday on detaining asylum seekers for deportation to #Rwanda.
You can be forcibly sent to Rwanda if your asylum claim has been refused, withdrawn, or treated as withdrawn (which catches anyone in hiding or not turning up to sign on).
However, now you can be detained if you have no ongoing claims or appeals, which catches anyone in the process of appealing but whose solicitors have not yet filed the claim.
" ... it seems clear – to me, at least – that both Labour and the Conservatives are in the narrative business, as distinct from the business of good governance"
Northern Ireland is now a sanctuary for migrants in fear of the Tories' Rwanda deportation policy.
The High Court of Northern Ireland has struck down key elements of UK Illegal Migration Act, as incompatible with the Windsor Agreement between the EU & UK.
It also ruled that other aspects remain incompatible with the ECHR.
So, those migrants who might have skipped over the border to the RoI, now can remain in NI from where it would seem they now cannot be deported.
The Republic of Congo has granted more than 22,000 hectares of agricultural land to Rwanda for a period of 25 years. An agreement that is starting to face increasing criticism from Congolese citizens. Dave Mafoula, an unsuccessful candidate in the 2021 presidential election, calls on his fellow citizens not to accept "things...
Civil servants have been instructed that they should obey ministers, but their union is challenging this because it claims this would be a breach of the Civil Service code, a code which requires officials to act in accordance with international law.
"Keir Starmer will promise to rip up the government’s Rwanda scheme and divert £75m to fund hundreds of new specialist officers to tackle people-smuggling with new counter-terror powers"
Oh FFS. Divert £75m into safe routes, and THAT will stop the people smugglers, you sad power fetishist.
Whatever you think of them, people smugglers are not terrorists. They are organised criminals who will move on to the next opportunity when this income dries up.
The Home Office is dealing with growing fallout as asylum seekers go into hiding or flee across the border to Ireland.
Predictable and ineffective:
"I was an asylum seeker in 2020 when the Home Office was trying to deport as many asylum seekers as possible to European countries they had passed through before Brexit started. Some asylum seekers went into hiding then & I can see that it is happening again because of Rwanda”
"The United States strongly condemns the attack (Friday) from Rwanda Defense Forces and M23 positions on the Mugunga camp for internally displaced persons in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement"
Good old Rwanda, that very safe country ( because the UK says so). Of course, the UK won't condemn this, as it's part of the Rwanda deportation deal not to.
An asylum seeker called Ahmed was interviewed on C4 News. He served with the British forces in Afghanistan, but was rejected by the ARAP scheme and has now had a Rwanda letter.
He has started a petition calling on the PM to abandon the Rwanda plan and create safe, organised routes to claim asylum once and for all.
It has 52k signatures and he has asked that it be shared.
I have been following #UKPolitics for more years than I care to mention but this #Rwanda scheme is, by far, one of the worst things that my government has embarked upon.
Rwanda opposition leader barred from standing against president (www.theguardian.com)
A prominent opponent of the Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, has been barred from standing in next month’s election to challenge his three-decade rule. Diane Rwigara, the leader of the People Salvation Movement, who was also barred in 2017, launched her election bid in May and submitted her candidacy last week. Her name was...
‘I’m frightened’: the asylum seekers rounded up to be sent to Rwanda (www.theguardian.com)
Asylum seekers from Sudan, Eritrea and Afghanistan detained in government’s Operation Vector share their stories. When Helen arrived at Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre, she was taken to her cell and handed some cleaning spray and wipes and told to use them before making up her bed. She had no idea why she had been...
In Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, Congolese protest following Sassou Nguesso's ceding of part of their land to Rwanda. (www.digitalcongo.net)
The Republic of Congo has granted more than 22,000 hectares of agricultural land to Rwanda for a period of 25 years. An agreement that is starting to face increasing criticism from Congolese citizens. Dave Mafoula, an unsuccessful candidate in the 2021 presidential election, calls on his fellow citizens not to accept "things...