Priti Patel’s Rwanda plan is even worse than it seems

This is not offshore processing, it is a one-way ticket to Kigali, writes John Rentoul

Priti Patel’s difficulty has been to find somewhere that would accept asylum-seekers, but now she has not only found somewhere, she has changed the policy (Getty Images)

I thought it was a bit strange when Priti Patel, the home secretary, said, “Australia is not comparable”, at the news conference in Kigali where she announced the deal with Rwanda to take asylum seekers from the UK.

Everyone knew that the Australian policy of dealing with asylum claims “offshore”, that is, outside Australia, in camps in Nauru, Christmas Island and Papua New Guinea, was the inspiration for Patel’s plan. Australia has succeeded in stopping people from arriving by boat and claiming asylum.

This has been achieved partly by turning back the boats in international waters, which Britain cannot do in the Channel because there are only French and British waters, and the dinghies trying to cross are unseaworthy and therefore unsafe to turn around. Partly, though, Australia has succeeded by deterrence: by processing asylum claims offshore.