The Rwanda Bill, discriminatory GPS tagging coupled with a raft of other inhumane legislation, all underline the U.K. government’s current uncompassionate and often brutal response to those seeking asylum at its shores. And despite ample evidence of the ruthless results these policies have led to, the government is expanding its scope and remains unapologetic. Meanwhile migrants, often fleeing violence and exploitation including modern slavery, pay the price.

Flawed from the start

The Rwanda bill faced criticism its very inception. Once it passed, Amnesty International U.K. called it “a stain on this country’s moral reputation” and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said the policy “wrongly shifted responsibility for refugee protection, undermined international cooperation and set a worrying global precedent”. However, far from heeding these statements, the BBC reports the government has now expanded the scope of who can be sent to Rwanda. Under the original plan, only those who arrived in the U.K. on or after 1 January 2022 could be deemed eligible for deportation. Now the agreement has been expanded to include people who have already had a claim refused or withdrawn and are unable to appeal.

Asylum Aid, one of the U.K.’s leading organizations helping victims of torture and trafficking said:

“(we) intend to take ministers to court because the rulebook for officials now implementing the scheme undermines a key safeguard for refugees that remained in the plan.”

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