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Good morning. When the safety of Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill was in the House of Lords before Easter, a mysterious delay appeared. There was plenty of time to pass it before the Easter recess, but the government put it on hold without giving any good reason, and even when parliament returned, the government did not make the passage of the law a matter of urgency. It cleared parliament and received royal assent last week.
And now it’s pretty clear why. With the Statute Bill, we see a flurry of Rwanda-related government activity – which, by a miraculous coincidence, seems to hit the papers just days and hours before the people of England go to vote in local elections.
Some of this activity is only possible because the Rwanda Bill is law. Like Rajiv Syal and Severin Karel report, the Ministry of Interior began detaining people and telling them they would be sent to Rwanda.
The sun today has what it seems at first glance an even more dramatic story. “Britain removes first failed asylum seeker in Rwanda,” he reports. “This is the first time the Government has moved a failed asylum seeker to a third country in what ministers hope will be the first of thousands.”
On second glance, there’s quite a bit less to this than the title suggests. This is voluntary repatriation. The asylum seeker, who is described in the Sun as being of African descent, is being paid £3,000 to fly to Rwanda. The Home Office has long run a voluntary return scheme where it pays people to return home if their asylum claim is unsuccessful, and this scheme, announced in March, is a variation on that policy, sending people to Rwanda instead. The government did not need the Rwanda Safety Act to allow this and it could have been done long before this week.
Opposition parties described the news as a pre-election trick. In a statement Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary said:
The Tories are so desperate to get a flight to Rwanda before the local elections that they have now just paid someone to go.
British taxpayers aren’t just shelling out £3,000 for a volunteer to get on a plane, they’re also paying Rwanda to provide him with free board and lodging for the next five years. This extortionist election stunt is likely to cost an average of £2m per person.
Former Tory Home Office ministers have warned that the government’s plan is simply to stop token flights ahead of a general election. Now we know what they mean.
And Alistair Carmichael, The Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman said:
This is cynical nonsense from a conservative party about to take a hit in the local elections. Paying someone to go to Rwanda highlights how much of a gimmick and farce their plan is.
But Kemi Badenoch, business and trade secretary, welcomed the development this morning. In an interview with LBC, she said it dispelled the “myth” that Rwanda is not a safe country. She said:
This is someone who actually volunteered to go to Rwanda, which disproves this nonsensical myth that Rwanda is not a safe place.
It is. People go on vacation there. I know someone who has a very wonderful holiday year there. We have to go through a lot of these myths that are actually just dismissive of an African country.
This scheme is designed to deter. It works. Someone wanted to go. Obviously, the easiest cases will be the first, but there will be many more.
And if you look at what the Irish government has said recently, it looks like it’s already working. They complain that they are forcing failed asylum seekers to come there because they didn’t want to go to Rwanda.
And when she was told that paying for the person to volunteer in Rwanda and then paying for their accommodation was expensive, she replied:
There is no free option, that’s the truth. It’s better that way than him being in the UK, either claiming benefits, or being entitled to things that other people in this country can’t have, which is much more expensive for the taxpayer. But there is no free way to secure our borders.
Here is the program for the day.
12 pm: Rishi Sunak faces Keir Starmer in PMQs.
14.50: MSPs are debating a vote of no confidence in the Scottish Government. The debate will last half an hour, and the vote will take place at 5 p.m.
afternoon: Starmer is visiting Essex.
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