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While lawmakers argue over the bill’s legality, NGOs working with refugees and migrants say that asylum seekers already in the UK have been heavily impacted by the fear that they could be deported to the eastern African nation.
The United Kingdom’s controversial plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda has had a heavy impact on asylum seekers already in the country, according to NGOs working with refugees. The plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, first announced in 2022, is still being debated in parliament. It is also erupting into a major political issue.
While lawmakers argue over the bill’s legality, NGOs working with refugees and migrants say that asylum seekers already in the UK have been heavily impacted by the fear that they could be deported to the eastern African nation.
Fear of deportation is uppermost among the migrants. NGO leaders in the UK say that the plan will not achieve the government’s stated aim of stopping traffickers and reducing migration to the UK but instead push vulnerable asylum seekers into further exploitation.
The Refugee Council, a leading charity in the UK working with asylum seekers and refugees, released in its 2023 report said that the policy has already led to refugees disappearing from contact with support organisations and causing huge distress, panic, and fear. The NGOs opine that the Rwanda plan is inhumane and likely to have a devastating impact on the health and well-being of people seeking asylum in the UK. They maintain that it is entirely unworkable. works with the impact of the plan.
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The plan is almost certain to see people opting to remain underground, and in the shadows rather than bringing themselves to the attention of the authorities, NGOs opine, adding that it would lead to greater risk of forced slavery. The plan is still being debated in Parliament and is set to return to the House of Commons in the coming weeks. The ruling Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, has vowed to get the first deportation flight airborne by this spring. In the meantime, asylum seekers are continuing to make dangerous journeys across the English Channel to the UK.
