Norris McDonald | Rishi Sunak’s refugees and UK’s ‘catch-and-deport-to-Rwanda’ plan

“I’m not accepted in my new country,

Not my language, my culture, nor my religion.

A hated immigrant Asylum Seeker

Spat in my face. But I will endure

In my search for peace and opportunity.”

Hope - A Poem about Refugees

By Chris Stratham (2018)

The British Supreme Court is currently reviewing the United Kingdom government’s agreement to deport asylum seekers 4,000 miles away to Rwanda, and many observers are wondering about the wider implication of the ruling.

A key issue before the Supreme Court is the safety of people who would be deported to Rwanda.

This ‘catch-and-deport-to-Rwanda’ refugee plan materialised in April 22, 2022, officially known as the Migration and Economic Partnership Agreement. Rwanda was offered, and accepted, US$160 million to keep these unwelcomed refugees for processing in Rwanda.

Several thousand persons would be deported to Rwanda if the Supreme Court rules in favour of the government. On the other hand, a ruling that the deportation plan is unlawful would perhaps mean a complete dismantling of what some call “a racist, inhumane” plan.

President Paul Kagame is the Rwandan ruler. It was he who signed the agreement with the then Boris Johnson government.

The iron-fisted General Kagame has been in power over 20 years and is expected to seek re-election for another five-year term.

A 2022 Human Rights Report by the US State Department said there was “credible evidence of serious human rights reports of unlawful or arbitrary killings, torture or cruel and inhumane, or degrading treatment or punishment by the [Rwandan] government”.

They also accused the Kagame regime of “arbitrary detentions of political prisoners”.

Far worse, there were serious allegations of “transnational repression”, whereby overseas critics of the Rwandan government in other countries met strange demise.

This was the same conclusion of the United Nation’s Commission who joined the case as an interested party.

With Britain being a signatory to several international conventions of the rights and treatment of people, why is the Government not accepting that Rwanda is not a safe place for the refugees?

In its June 2023 ruling, UK’s Appeal Court concluded that:

• The Government’s plan was unlawful;

• Rwanda would not be able to resolve petitioner’s asylum issues;

• The country was unsafe; and

• There was reasonable “fear that the asylum seekers would be deported back to their home country” once they were sent to Rwanda.

REFUGEE TSUNAMI

In the meantime, while the UK government will not admit it, they, along with America and the European allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) bloc, are responsible for this refugee tsunami.

The war in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya were the initial triggers. But since then, we have seen perpetual NATO-inspired wars, political coups or civil wars in the Middle East and North Africa.

Wars have destroyed human lives, uprooted people, and turned them into refugees. Added to this, we have the problem of rising hunger, and extreme hardship. The drastic changing weather patterns have created droughts, destroying agriculture and basic subsistence for living.

The refugee crisis has been worsening over the past 20 years or so. There are now over 108.4 million displaced people in the world today, a June 14, 2023 report from the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said.

As previously mentioned, many of these people were uprooted by foreign-imposed, imperialist wars.

But does this really matter?

The way the UK government sees it in their legal filing, many asylum seekers came because of “immigrant smuggling”.

And, in any event, they argue, these persons “could have claimed asylum in France, or elsewhere in the EU, and should not be coming to the UK at all”.

Maybe it’s because they are not white Ukrainians, who were immediately put on luxurious cruise lines, then settled in posh homes and given stipends.

Perhaps the non-white refugees could file their asylum petitions on the Chagos Islands.

Drats! Wait!

With the UK having expelled Chagos Islanders from their homeland and turned them into refugees, their homeland was given to America to build a military base.

So you see, my friends, all immigrants have a deep human story. Whether they go through the formal immigration process or they cross the seas on rickety, storm-washed boats, it comes back to the issue of forced displacement.

Chris Statham, the humanist, explains the harsh refugee reality in his poem of the same name

“I run from poverty and war,

Corruption and nepotism.

I have left my friends,

My wife,

But most heartbreakingly of all,

My children.”

Wars, crisis, refugee crisis. How will it all end?

The UK’s racist plan is to ship asylum seekers to Rwanda. But this is now a matter of uncertainty, depending on the Supreme Court ruling

UK’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, like the masterful, do-nothing, Tweedledee and Tweedledum he is, has now come up with a HOLDING PLAN. He will be putting the refugees in converted shipping containers!

Therefore, if the deport-to-Rwanda plan fails, then the hot-to-cold shipping containers may be a perfidious way to force the refugees into self-deportation!

At least, that is just my view. What do you think?

A SEARCH FOR HOPE

My dear friends, it is easy for some people to be dismissive of the plight of refugees who fearfully run away from their homeland. But we ought not to look at this issue through the myopic lens of the Western politicians or their yapping mouthpiece press.

It is in this sense humanist Chris Stratham exposes the living soul of the refugee in his poem…

“My heart is broken, but I will endure.

I’ll walk across deserts dodging bandits.

I’ll dare the God of the seas to take me.

I’ll walk over snowy mountains passes.

I’ll do anything in search for a better life,

For those dearest to me.”

That is the essence of the refuge story....

“My heart is broken, but I will endure.”

Maybe if the UK and their NATO ‘One Don’ imperialist boss and Mini-Me minions would stop sponsoring wars, stop plundering nations, and allow the developing nations to choose their own pathway to achieve prosperity, then so many people would not be forced to flee their sacred homeland!

That is just the ‘bitta’ truth.

Norris McDonald is an economic journalist, political analyst, and respiratory therapist. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and miaminorris@yahoo.com.