The UK should abandon its Rwanda asylum deal, once and for all

The UK should be speaking up against human rights violations by the Rwandan government and abandon its dangerous asylum deal once and for all, writes Yasmine Ahmed

The Government told the UK’s highest court that Rwanda is ‘less attractive’ than the UK but a safe country to deport asylum seekers to (Yui Mok/PA) (PA Wire)

“We are always changing phones, and they are always finding the number,” Faustin Rukundo, a former senior member of a Rwandan opposition group living in exile in Leeds, speaks openly about Rwanda’s targeting of its nationals overseas. “Anyone close to me is threatened,” adds his wife, Violette Uwamahoro. It is clear to me that their fears for their own and their families’ safety, both in the UK and Rwanda, are well founded.

Yet this week, the UK government was at the Supreme Court arguing that Rwanda is a “safe third country” to which to send asylum seekers – and that its paper-thin promises that it will respect the rights of asylum seekers can be relied on.

The government is doubling down after a UK court in June found the deal unlawful because asylum seekers sent to Rwanda risk being sent from there back to their home country, where they may face mistreatment. The contrast between what the UK government is saying to defend its asylum deal and the experience of the 150 Rwandans we interviewed, including many refugees and asylum seekers, is jarring.