A European migration expert has claimed Britain’s Rwanda plan for refugees would have worked had it not been handled “amateurishly.”
Austrian migration expert Gerald Knaus is the founder of the European Stability Initiative (ESI) and has campaigned for the outsourcing of European asylum processes to African countries.
Knaus said that the UK’s Rwanda scheme failed not because it was a bad idea, but because of poor planning by the former British Conservative government.
Despite political resistance, particularly from the new Labour government, Knaus argued that the Rwanda model could offer a solution to irregular migration across Europe.
The policy was scrapped by the incoming Labour government
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He told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ): “It was handled amateurishly by the Tories…The British government had already set a cut-off date for the transfer of all asylum seekers arriving after that date, before clarifying how credible asylum procedures could be ensured in Rwanda.
“As was to be expected, the courts in London intervened against this. It was only after the courts’ justified objections had been clarified that the government signed a new agreement with Rwanda at the end of 2023.
“In it, Rwanda committed itself to not deporting those who would be brought from the UK to the country, even if their asylum application was rejected. Thus, rejected asylum seekers could also have remained in Rwanda.”
Knaus also pointed to the revised 2023 agreement between the UK and Rwanda, which improved national asylum processes and involved international judges arguing that it showed that asylum procedures can be done properly in Rwanda, while stressing the safety of the country.
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The policy was a flagship for Rishi Sunak
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United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has been conducting asylum operations in Rwanda since 2019, bringing in refugees from Libya for processing.
Knaus added: “The Tories were voted out of office this summer and the current government is opposed to the project for political reasons and has suspended cooperation with Rwanda. However, we now know that proper asylum procedures are possible in Rwanda.
“Rwanda is safe for this, otherwise the UNHCR would not be able to do it.
“Those granted asylum can either stay in Rwanda or apply for a resettlement programme, mainly to the US or Canada. So it can be done.”
Sir John Major criticised the now scrapped plans
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It comes as former PM Sir John Major has criticised the previous government’s Rwanda scheme, stating it is an unsuitable policy for the 21st century and branding it “un-Conservative and un-British”.
The former prime minister said he dislikes “intensely the way society has come to regard immigration as an ill” and warned that a Tory merger with Reform UK would be “fatal.”
Sir John said: “I thought it was un-Conservative, un-British, if one dare say in a secular society, un-Christian, and unconscionable and I thought that this is really not the way to treat people.”