Kentish Express Ashford & District
Rwanda asylum plan ‘not helping to stop crossings’
Refugee charities say government plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda have done little to deter Channel crossings in small boats.
A total 547 people were picked up in 16 small boats on Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday after an 11-day lull. Some 254 people were detected in seven small boats crossing from France on Sunday and the figure was 293 people in nine small boats on Monday.
There had been no crossings from Wednesday, April 20 to Saturday, April 30, because of rough sea weather.
Charity Care4Calais said that of the 64 asylum seekers it surveyed, 87% had heard of the plan and 75% said “it won’t put them off ” crossing to the UK.
In a tweet, the organisation said: “They have no choice: they’ve fled danger made long, dangerous journeys, and France ‘does not give you security’, as one said.”
A spokesman for the group said: “Refugees have escaped from the worst horrors in this world. When you’re risking your life, what else do you have to lose? When someone explains ‘even death wouldn’t stop me’ trying to get to the UK, it’s clear that even the threat of Rwanda won’t change anything.
Pierre-Henri Dumont, French National Assembly member for Calais, told BBC Radio 4’s The World At One programme there was evidence that UK government plans to process asylum applications in Rwanda was encouraging migrants to attempt the crossing before these measures took effect.
He said: “From what I heard from the migrants, it seems that the news of the new legislation in the UK with Rwanda gives the smugglers the availability of new commercial arguments (to) the migrants to urge them to cross quickly for them not to be sent away because of this new legislation.”
Enver Solomon, chief executive of Refugee Council, said the return of crossings at the weekend showed that “draconian policies enshrined in the Nationality and Borders Bill and their (the government’s) Rwanda deal are doing little to deter desperate people jumping on boats because they do nothing to address the reasons people come”.
He called on the UK to have a “grown-up conversation with France and the EU about sharing responsibility.”
He said: “We need a fair and humane asylum system, with means well thought-out, longterm solutions that address why people are forced from their homes, and provides them with safe routes to the UK.”
Care4Calais renewed its call for the allowance of visa applications for all refugees. The charity said: “The answer to many problems in Calais is to let refugees apply for visas to cross the Channel safely, because now – unless you’re Ukrainian – there’s no safe way for a refugee to get to the UK and claim asylum. That would put people smugglers out of business and save lives.”
Figures up to Monday, monitored by the PA News agency, mean that 7,240 people have crossed the Channel in small boats so far during 2022.
There have been other periods of no crossings, again usually caused by bad weather. The longest so far in 2022 was 16 days, between January 27 and February 11, PA analysis shows.
The trend of asylum seekers using small craft to enter the UK has risen year after year. There were 28,526 people detected arriving on small boats in 2021 compared to 8,466 in 2020, 1,843 in 2019 and 299 in 2018.
The Ministry of Defence took over control of migrant operations in April, when the UK Government also announced controversial plans to send some of those making the cross-Channel journey to Rwanda.
The Government’s Nationality and Borders Bill became law last Thursday. It makes it a criminal offence to knowingly arrive in the UK illegally and includes powers to process asylum seekers overseas.
The Rwanda deal will let that country receive asylum seekers deemed by the UK to be inadmissible, having arrived “illegally” under new immigration rules. Home Secretary Priti Patel described it as a “world-first” agreement.
A government spokesman said: “The rise in dangerous Channel crossings is unacceptable. They are an overt abuse of our immigration laws but also impact on the UK taxpayer, risk lives and our ability to help refugees come to the UK via safe and legal routes.”
‘Even the threat of Rwanda won’t change anything’