The British Parliament’s Home Affairs Committee has questioned whether the British Government’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda has the effect of deterring migrants seeking irregular crossing of the English Channel.
“It is not yet clear if this will have this effect,” the deputies conclude in a report published this Monday, in which they ask the Executive to present evidence as well as the detailed measures that are being carried out to “ensure physical and mental well-being” of those transferred.
In this regard, the committee denies that there is a “magic bullet” to address the irregular immigration that crosses the canal with precarious boats and that, instead, “detailed, well-founded, proven and adequately funded policies” are needed.
In 2021, more than 28,500 people arrived in small boats and they are expected to increase this 2022 to more than 60,000 at the end of the yearaccording to the report.
Faced with this increase, in mid-April the government of Boris Johnson announced an agreement with Rwanda in which pledged to provide 120 million pounds for the development of the country African (more than 141 million euros) and this, in return, was lent to welcome asylum seekers from the United Kingdom.
Despite the “great visibility” that boat arrivals have on British shores -with tragedies such as the 27 people drowned on November 24-, the members of the committee recall that there are many immigrants who always have entered clandestinely by other meanssuch as the ferry, the plane and the train.
The recent increase in people opting for the precarious boats is attributed to the reinforcement of security by the French and British authorities in the north of France, which has displaced the flow that used to opt for safer vehicles -now more guarded- to the dangerous route of crossing the canal by boat.
Related news
For this reason, the committee warns of the danger of “a Pyrrhic victory” if the arrival of ships is blocked, since new roads could be created even more dangerousand recommends more cooperation with France and the rest of the European Union, despite the obstacles of Brexit.
“The Government risks undermining its own ambitions and the UK’s international standing if it cannot show that proposed policies such as returns, now abandoned, and overseas prosecution, such as the Rwanda partnership now being contested legally, they are compatible with international law and conventions”argue the parliamentarians.