Protesters furious at plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda
PROTESTERS gathered in Manchester city centre yesterday to demonstrate against government plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Activists slammed the government’s deportation policy, which will see those who arrive in Britain illegally face deportation 4,000 miles away to east Africa.
More than 100 protesters carried placards and broke out into chants criticising the plan – put forward by Home Secretary Priti Patel in April – which is aimed at discouraging people trying to cross the channel in small boats from northern France.
The plans have been widely criticised on human rights grounds but a legal challenge to block the first one-way flight to Rwanda on Tuesday has been rejected by the High Court. A total of 31 people were due on the flight, although at least 15 of them have since had their tickets cancelled.
The Home Office is planning to schedule more flights to Rwanda later this year. An appeal against the High Court decision is due to be heard today.
Once the speeches were over, scores of protesters marched down Oxford Street and Portland Street chanting ‘refugees are welcome here’ and calling for the flights to Rwanda to be stopped. Bemused passersby watched on as protesters came to a halt on tram tracks and took the knee in solidarity with the Black Lives Matters movement.
The demonstration was organised by several groups including Greater Manchester Stand Up To Racism, Care4Calais and Manchester Iranian Socialist Group.
Nahella Ashraf, co-chair of Greater Manchester Stand Up To Racism, said the purpose of the rally was to ‘show solidarity’ with those affected by the policy. She said: “The reason we’re here is because we want to show that we’re absolutely disgusted by this new policy where basically the government want to ship people off on a one-way ticket to Rwanda.
“These are people that are really traumatised and vulnerable who have come to Britain looking for safety and they’re being shipped off to a place, let’s be honest, that has very little human rights, particularly for refugees. This is state-sponsored trafficking. They’re paying the Rwandans to take these people. We as a country have a responsibility towards refugees and those seeking asylum.”
Ms Ashraf added: “These people are part of our community. They’re our brothers and sisters in the wider Manchester community and we will defend them.”
Maddy Summerfield, Care4Calais’s regional lead for Manchester and Cheshire, said the turnout was ‘the biggest they had ever seen.’ “This policy has really shocked people,” she said.
“It’s brought the community together. There must be about 200 people here. We’ve never had crowds like this ever.
“We are a city of sanctuary. The community does welcome refugees and the turnout today reflects that.”