Last November I noted in the Government's proposed UK-Rwanda Migration and Economic Development Partnership a provision buried away and tacked onto an otherwise unrelated clause:  “The British Government has also committed to resettle in the UK a small number of vulnerable refugees currently in Rwanda.”

The corresponding Memorandum of Understanding confirmed: “The Participants will make arrangements for the United Kingdom to resettle a portion of Rwanda’s most vulnerable refugees in the United Kingdom, recognising both Participants’ commitment towards providing better international protection for refugees.”

But nowhere was the status of such refugees clearly defined. Would they include, for instance, people from third countries (such as, for instance, neighbouring African states) seeking refuge or asylum in Rwanda? Or citizens of Rwanda wishing to seek asylum elsewhere? Or those the UK Government had deported to Rwanda under the Partnership, but were now accepting back? 

I asked both the Home Office and the authors of the Memorandum (through the House of Commons Library) for clarification, but received no definitive reply.

A news report in The i answered my question. Six people from Rwanda have been granted asylum in Britain since the Government signed its deportation deal with that country in 2022. So: Rwanda six, UK nil. Given the vast sums of taxpayers' money already spent on this project, one hopes a reciprocal arrangement is in place whereby Rwanda will recompense the UK accordingly - though I find no reference in either the Partnership agreement nor the Memorandum.

All this makes nonsense of our Government's claim (which it continues to insist upon, even though rejected as unlawful by our Supreme Court last November) that Rwanda is a safe third country: rather, its policy leaves people sent there open to human rights breaches.

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