"We are left with little confidence in the Home Office’s ability to implement the Rwanda partnership and its understanding of the costs, particularly given its track record in delivering other major programmes"
Public Accounts Committee
They're not "mistakes". They were deliberately cruel schemes to set up pseudo prisons, with their mates creaming off lucrative contracts.
Johnston Busingye was formally appointed as Rwanda’s High Commissioner to the UK days after UK agreed Rwanda asylum deal with Paul Kagame in 2022, after 7 months of delays and objections by human rights organisations. This article goes on to list a catalogue of human rights abuses in Rwanda and internationally, perpetrated by the Kagame regime.
The stench of Tory corruption hovers over it.
"Officers train for handling those who will not comply on crash mats in rows of tents they call “dojos”.
We were not allowed to watch more physical training and the use of cuffs, waist and leg restraints...
It takes three officers to escort one detainee, two in seats either side, the other across the aisle offering support.
All three fly to the destination"
Inside the secret UK govt Rwanda training facility. Sickening.
Good article on the difficulty of bringing Rwanda and its officials to justice over its involvement in the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Rwanda under dictator Paul Kagame has consistently refused the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) making it impossible to try any cases. #Rwanda#DRC#M23#ICJ#ICC
Rwanda’s role in eastern DRC conflict: why international law is failing to end the fighting https://theconversation.com/rwandas-role-in-eastern-drc-conflict-why-international-law-is-failing-to-end-the-fighting-229731
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."
Stuart Skeates, the head of the Home Office section that detains and processes asylum seekers for deportation, has halted recruitment and is drawing up plans for staff cuts after demands from Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
Skeates wrote in an email to staff that he was “incredibly proud” of preparations for “the first flights to Rwanda commencement of the illegal Migration Act Duty to Remove provisions”.
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: