People seeking asylum in the UK can now be resettled in Rwanda under a controversial new scheme that international human rights groups have described as "horribly ill-considered" and inconsistent with international obligations.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the plan as "an innovative approach, driven by our common humanitarian drive and made possible by the freedoms of Brexit", on Thursday, saying that with the UK's help, Rwanda would have the capacity to resettle "tens of thousands of people in years coming.”
UK Secretary of State for the Home Department Priti Patel said, during a joint press conference in the Rwandan capital Kigali on Thursday, that people relocated to Rwanda "will get support including up to five years of training, integration, accommodation, and healthcare, so they can do so in resettlement and prosperity.”
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Patel also described the plan as a "new joint partnership on migration and economic development", saying the UK was "making a significant investment in Rwanda's economic development".
Patel insisted the agreement was intended to improve the UK's asylum system, which she said has faced "a mixture of real humanitarian crises and vicious human smugglers who are exploiting the system for their own gain".
On his part, Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Perrota said the country has the capacity to receive migrants and will invest in new infrastructure for the education and accommodation of migrants with the support of the United Kingdom.
Perrota added that the program would only be for people seeking asylum in the UK who are in the UK, and that they "prefer not to take in people from their immediate neighbors, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Uganda, and Tanzania."
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