Home Office minister unable to show any evidence that government’s Rwanda policy will cut Channel crossings
A Home Office minister was unable to point to any calculations that the government’s Rwanda relocation policy will reduce the number of people arriving in the UK via small boats.
Tom Pursglove, minister for justice and tackling illegal migration, told MPS it was“logical”that by striking at the business model of people traffickers,the amount of people crossing the Channel would decline.
When asked by the commons home affairs select committee what modelling was used to give the “evidence base” for this decision, he replied :“This is a new and untested policy at this point in time. I do think that in the fullness of time we will see this policy, as part of a wider package that we are introducing, really shift the dynamic.
“What is absolutely clear is we can not continue with the status quo.”
The scheme announced last month by Home Secretary Priti Patel will se et heukpayf or asylumseekers who are deemed to have arrived on its shores “illegally” to be sent to Rwanda, where their claims will be process ed. if successful, they will be granted asylum or given refugee status in the African country.
Asked whether there was UK government modelling the committee could read, Dan Hobbs, director of asylum, protection and enforcement at the Home Office, replied: “No, you can do some assumption modelling as part of evidence and to assess numbers.
“But defining the individual impact and the individual decisions of migrants is extremely complicated.”
The committee later heard that israel sent 4,000 refugees to Rwanda between 2014 and 2017 but that, as of 2018, only nine of those remained in the country.
The SNP’S Joanna Cherry, attending the session as a guest from the Joint Committee on Human Rights, asked Mr Pursglove about Foreign Office travel advice for Rwanda, which states that individuals can“experience discrimination and abuse, including from local authorities” and that there are “no specific anti-discrimination laws that protect LGBT individuals”.
In response, Mr Pursglove said there “is an anti-discrimination law that runs through the constitution of rwanda like a stick of rock”.
Officials this week were unable to say when exactly removals could begin.