2024-04-23 16:36:34
The controversy does not cease in Europe after the decision adopted by the British Parliament, which approved a controversial bill that authorizes the deportation to Rwanda of asylum seekers who entered the United Kingdom illegally, after a heated debate between the two legislative chambers.
The UN itself asked the United Kingdom on Tuesday to “reconsider its plan” to expel migrants to Rwanda, an African country 7,000 km away, which according to the United Nations “creates a dangerous precedent in the world.”
The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, and his counterpart in charge of refugees, Filippo Grandi, called on the United Kingdom to instead “take practical measures to address irregular flows of refugees and migrants, based on international cooperation and respect for international human rights legislation.”
The text of the bill must now receive the king’s signature (a formality) before coming into force. The government hopes to begin expulsions “in 10 to 12 weeks.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his Conservative party were pushing for the adoption of this text that will force judges to consider the East African nation as a safe country for expelled migrants.
Along the same lines, from Strasbourg, the Council of Europe, an organization of which London is a part, also called on the British government to reconsider the text.
The new Commissioner for Human Rights, the Irish Michael O’Flaherty, expressed his “concern” that the bill “allows people to be deported to Rwanda without their asylum applications having been examined by the British authorities in the most cases.”
This law “excludes the ability of British courts to fully and independently examine cases brought before them,” he added.
O’Flaherty recalled that, under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the United Kingdom does not have the right to return asylum seekers to their country of origin, even indirectly through a third country.
The government of Rwanda declared itself “satisfied” with the vote and declared itself “impatient to welcome people resettled in Rwanda.”
Rwanda presents itself as one of the most stable countries on the African continent, but several human rights groups accuse President Paul Kagame, in power since 1994, of governing in a climate of fear, repressing dissent and freedom. expression.
Reaction among migrants
“I thought they cared about humanity.” Disappointment dominated the mood this Tuesday in the Loon-Plage migrant camp, in northern France, after the adoption by the United Kingdom of a law to expel irregular asylum seekers to Rwanda.
“Will they really send them to Rwanda?” asks Sultan, who has just learned of the law adopted in London, incredulously.
This 20-year-old Afghan with youthful features, who left his country after the Taliban returned to power in 2021, had heard about the controversial conservative bill.
“But I didn’t take it seriously. “He thought humanity mattered to these people,” he says between two nervous laughs.
Sitting on a sidewalk crossed by vegetation, he gets up when another man arrives, bewildered. By mid-morning, the news is still not circulating in the camp. Sultan announces it to him in Dari, one of the languages spoken in Afghanistan, and emphasizes: “They can send us all to Rwanda, no matter where we come from.”
“What are we supposed to do now? “Where can we go?” his friend shouts, before walking away. “Everyone is shocked,” Sultan summarizes, disappointed.
“I just want to be free and they want to send me to Rwanda? “Rwanda is not better than my country!” says Sagvan Khalid Ibrahim, a 29-year-old Iraqi Kurd, a few meters away.
“I would rather die in Europe than be sent to Rwanda,” adds the man with a thick red beard, who arrived at the camp in December and tried unsuccessfully to cross the English Channel twice.
He returns from one of the vats surrounding the camp, where he filled a bottle. Refugees drink and wash with cold water in this area, located between a dead-end road and a muddy path.
Ebrahim Hamit Hassou, a 25-year-old Syrian Kurd, has just brushed his teeth… and discovered the adoption of British law.
“If we really run the risk of ending up in Ruada, I think I won’t go to England. We don’t know if Rwanda is a safe country,” she muses out loud.
Many around him hope that the plan of Rishi Sunak’s British government will have, above all, an advertisement effect to discourage those who want to reach the English shores and will be too complicated to implement.
If not, Hamid, a 30-year-old Afghan, believes he has the solution: “I will go to Ireland.” “I am waiting for the state of the sea to improve and I will try” a crossing to England and, from there, to Dublin, where “a friend” lives, he details.
Some 45,000 migrants reached the English coast from northern France in 2022, a record that fell to almost 30,000 in 2023. Since the beginning of the year, they have increased by 20% compared to the same period last year.
The dramas also accumulate. In the early hours of Tuesday, five migrants, including a girl, lost their lives on the French beach of Wimereux. Since the beginning of 2024, 15 migrants have died, three more than in all of 2023, according to an AFP count.
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