Comment
MERCY MUROKI
I arrived in the UK as a migrant 23 years ago – we need to give the Rwanda scheme a chance to stop the illegal boats
Two years on I can’t help but feel it should be given a chance when Parliament votes on it again this month
FOR the sake of us all, the Rwanda plan should be given a shot.
When Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the Rwanda plan in 2022, I wrote in The Sun that the policy was a “stroke of genius”.
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My view at the time was that it was, in spite of the controversy it was shrouded in, a clever way to cut the head off the snake of people smuggling.
It is now exactly two years since the UK signed the deal with Rwanda.
In that time, it has been endlessly stalled by political drama, stifled by domestic courts and stopped in its tracks by the Marmite European Court of Human Rights.
In the latter case, this was quite literally the case, as a Rwanda-bound flight was grounded on the runway by European judges at the 11th hour.
But despite the turmoil and vicious wrangling over the morality and legality of the plan, two years on I can’t help but feel it should be given a chance when Parliament votes on it again this month.
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My pro-control stance on immigration has led to me being accused by those on the Left as being a “race traitor” and of “enabling white supremacy”.
And those are the nicer ones.
But far from having some kind of irrational vendetta against migrants, which would, of course, be absurd given I am one, there are a few clear reasons why I think Rwanda continues to be the best bet.
Detractors say the plan is costly and ineffective.
Most read in The Sun
Yes, it has cost hundreds of millions despite not a single plane having taken off.
The Government has signed up to sending at least £370million over five years to Rwanda.
Watch fuming cabbie clash with Rishi Sunak over small boats crisis as PM is grilled by Sun Cabinet
But that’s a drop in the ocean of government spending.
That’s not even a day’s worth of NHS daily spending, and far less than the estimated £427million a year spent on diversity and inclusion staff in the public sector.
If we can spend nearly half a billion a year for virtue-signalling roles, then I’m sure we can spend the same amount securing our borders against people trafficking.
Growing up as a migrant has taught me one thing — cultural and racial tensions must be curbed at all costs
As for ineffective, it is idiotic at best to make claims about how effective a deterrent it will be, given that it has not come into force.
There is also the claim Rwanda is a refugee’s hellhole, with few rights and protections.
That would come as a surprise to Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (whose job it is to advocate for refugees globally and highlight injustices).
A year before the announcement of the Rwanda policy, he praised the African nation during a three-day visit for providing welcoming, generous and safe conditions for refugees and asylum-seekers fleeing war-torn countries.
Indeed, Rwanda is not only the cleanest country in Africa, but has one of the fastest growing economies, and a majority female parliament — the highest share anywhere in the world.
Excuse me if I don’t quite believe it is the backwards, regressive hellhole some paint it to be.
The third reason for me is the most pressing and most personal.
This month marks 23 years since I migrated to Britain.
Growing up as a migrant has taught me one thing — cultural and racial tensions must be curbed at all costs.
WHAT IS THE RWANDA PLAN? IMMIGRATION SCHEME EXPLAINED
What is the Rwanda plan?
Under the plan, anyone who arrives in Britain illegally will be deported to Rwanda, a country in eastern Africa.
The government believes the threat of being removed to Rwanda will deter migrants from making the dangerous Channel crossing in small boats.
Once in Rwanda, their asylum claims will be processed but there is no route back to the UK, save for some exceptional circumstances such as individual safety concerns. Britain will pay for migrants to start a new life in Rwanda.
What’s the hold up?
First announced by Boris Johnson in 2022, the scheme has been bogged down by relentless legal challenges.
The first flight was due to take off in summer 2022, but was blocked on the runway at the last minute by a European Court order.
Since then the legality of the plan has been contested in the courts, culminating in a Supreme Court judgement in November last year which said Rwanda was unsafe for asylum seekers.
What is Sunak doing?
To salvage the Rwanda plan from the Supreme Court’s scathing ruling, Rishi Sunak announced a two-pronged workaround.
First, he would sign a new treaty with Rwanda to beef up protections for asylum seekers that will be enshrined in law.
Second, he would introduce new legislation that would declare Rwanda a safe country.
It would mean courts, police and officials would have to treat it as safe unless there is a risk of individual and irreparable harm.
How long will that take?
The legislation has cleared the Commons but is now being held up in the House of Lords.
Rishi Sunak does not have a majority in the Lords, and peers are far more hostile to the plan.
They will likely send it back to the Commons with amendments watering down the scheme.
Such changes would be unconscionable to MPs who would strip out the measures and send it back.
This “ping-pong” will continue until either side - usually the unelected Lords - gives in and the Bill passes.
When will flights take off?
Mr Sunak wants to get the first flights sent to Rwanda by the spring.
But potential hurdles include more court battles launched by individual migrants or the European Court of Human Rights.
Mr Sunak has vowed to ignore any more orders by Strasbourg judges to ground planes, although individual appeals in domestic courts could prove tricky.
Sir Keir Starmer has said he will scrap the scheme if he is elected PM, even if it is working.
Playing by the same rules
Put bluntly, we all like each other better — natives and migrants — when we feel we are all playing by the same rules.
The seemingly seamless trafficking of tens of thousands across the Channel by money-grabbing smugglers and the shameless exploitation of our asylum system by those who aren’t genuinely in need has made a mockery of that fairness.
I am not surprised Reform UK, which has gone way further than any party in pledging to not only clamp down on illegal immigration but freeze legal immigration altogether except for in essential cases, is now polling higher than the Conservatives among men.
Newly released figures show that 5,000 people have crossed the Channel so far in small boats this year, topping the record for arrivals between January and March last year.
Sadly, people continue to die making the journey, with five losing their lives in French waters in January alone.
When we don’t get a grip on illegal migration, people get impatient with migration altogether
There are only so many times we can have yet more “record-breaking” Channel crossing figures before something has to give.
When we don’t get a grip on illegal migration, people get impatient with migration altogether.
And that affects those like me, who want to live in a Britain where we are all getting along and playing by the same rules, and where a fair and robust immigration system prevails over traffickers and fraudsters.
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That’s why, for me, Rwanda remains the best option on the table.
And until its critics put another plan on the table that goes beyond Labour’s empty platitudes of “greater co-operation with the EU”, I will continue to think so.
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