Owing to their recent history 80% of Rwandans have themselves been refugees
this year, collates sources including the US State Department and Human Rights Watch setting out serious shortcomings in the protection of human rights in Rwanda.
These organisations, and others like Amnesty International, have collected evidence of unlawful or arbitrary killings, disappearances, and torture. It is extraordinary that the UK Government think this can just be ignored.
One area of particular concern for asylum seekers sent from the UK is the protection of the rights of samesex attracted and transgender people.
The UK Foreign Office travel advice for Rwanda warns “individuals can experience discrimination and abuse, including from local authorities. There are no specific anti-discrimination laws that protect LGBT individuals”. When I put this to government officials and others with whom we met, I was reassured that the Rwandan constitution contains a general protection against discrimination, but no one was able to show me any evidence that any LGBT person has ever availed themselves of this protection.
On LGBT rights I think Rwanda is where Britain was 50 years ago. Yes, unlike many other African countries, homosexuality is not criminalised but there are no statutory rights for same-sex attracted or trans people and no specific antidiscrimination laws. According to NGOs we met on the ground, LGBT people face stigmatisation and discrimination in what is quite a conservative society.
Rwanda has a National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) with whom we met but it struck me as far too close to government.
Until recently its current chair led on the Migration and Economic Development Partnership in her capacity as the head of international justice and judicial co-operation in the Ministry of Justice. It seems the NHRC never criticises the government in its annual reports, preferring to resolve issues “collaboratively”. This contrasts with our own domestic human rights commissions who are quite prepared to criticise government where necessary.
Many who come to the UK seeking asylum have left their own countries because they were under threat as dissidents or human rights defenders. LGBT asylum seekers want to come to the UK because here they would enjoy some of the best rights protections in the world. Such asylum seekers are confident they would fare better in the UK than at home, the evidence does not suggest to me that they could have the same confidence in Rwanda.
Based on the evidence and information I gathered on my trip to Rwanda, I remain of the view that it is still not a safe country for asylum seekers. As the United Nations High Commission for Refugees told me, systemic and structural change needs to happen and then it needs to cascade down through the system. That will take time. A greater commitment to meaningful human rights protections is also required. Viewed against these conclusions, the Lords’ amendments are small beer.
That they should be resisted by the UK Government so strenuously is disgraceful.