Over the past two years, the UK Government has introduced a series of laws and policies designed to make most people’s asylum claims inadmissible and forcibly send those affected to Rwanda.
These inhumane plans have been consistently challenged by the Jesuit Refugee Service, along with others upholding the rights of refugees and forcibly displaced people. However, new legislation passed this week brings the forcible transfer of people to Rwanda a step closer.
Like all outsourcing of asylum, this undermines the very principles of international protection, and the obligation we all share to provide sanctuary to refugees. It puts lives at risk.
These troubling developments in the UK are not occurring in a vacuum. They are part of a trend across Europe to reject the basic tenets of asylum and with them the recognition of our common humanity.
It is vital that these cruel and unworkable proposals are stopped and not allowed to fuel further attempts to externalise asylum or slam shut the doors of Europe. We have a duty of welcome to those who have lost everything and seek safety in Europe. Denying it is not who we are.
