General Information - April 2022

Priti Patel Accused of Misleading Parliament Over Refugee Pushbacks

Any Single Asylum Seeker Now in the UK - Can be Deported to Rwanda

Britain’s Cruel Plans to ‘Offshore’ the Vulnerable Won’t Stop With Refugees

Rwanda is A One-Way Ticket - if Recognised as a Refugee you Remain in Rwanda

UK Condemned Rwanda for Human Rights Abuses Months Before Signing Deal to Send Asylum Seekers There

Patel Spells Out the End of the Refugee Convention in the UK

Rwanda Genocide of 1994 - some 200,000 Hutu were exterminated by the Government

Justice Minister Quits Over Covid 'Rule-Breaking' in Downing Street

How the Chagossians Won the Right to Register as British

Overturning a Citizenship Refusal Based on Character Concerns is Very Difficult

Afghan Judge to Get Visa Decision Before Having to Come Out of Hiding

Quietly Passing Statutory Instruments is No Way legislate on Migrants’ Rights

Briefing: Indefinite Leave to Remain for People With Refugee Status or Humanitarian Protection

MPs Call For Military Base Housing Asylum Seekers to Close With ‘Immediate and Permanent Effect’

USA: Asylum Seekers Face Real Harm from US Border Policy

Home Office Policy of Blanket Seizures Of Migrants’ Mobile Phones Unlawful

‘Unnecessary, Mean-Minded and Vindictive’: Peers Savage Anti-Refugee Bill

Windrush Progress Report Shows Too Many Lessons Aren’t Being Learned

Migrant Seasonal Workers Must Now be Paid at Skilled Worker Rates

Mitie Under Investigation Over Home Office Immigration Contracts

Weaponising Violence Against Women: From Ireland to Poland

Rwanda is A One-Way Ticket - if Recognised as a Refugee you Remain in Rwanda The idea of “offshoring” or “extraterritorial processing” is not new in the UK and has been implemented (then abandoned) by Australia. The basic idea is that an asylum seeker is either intercepted before physical arrival and removed to a safe third country or, if they reach the territory of the country concerned, they are then removed to the safe third country. On one model the asylum seeker, if recognised as a refugee, might be readmitted to the first country. On another, they remain in the safe third country (or be resettled to yet another country). The Rwanda deal is firmly in the latter camp: those recognised as refugees will be forced to remain in that country and not allowed to come to the UK. This is clear from the text of the deal and is stated explicitly in a letter from the Home Office’s top civil servant, Matthew Rycroft: “the UK’s legal obligations end once an individual is relocated to Rwanda, and GoR [government of Rwanda] takes on the legal responsibility for that individual and for processing their claim in line with the Refugee Convention”. [The buildings and hotels in which the Rwandese Authorities intend to accommodate the asylum seekers from UK, where initially built, and used to, accommodate survivors from the 1994 Tutsis Genocide. The survivors accommodated there have been expelled to make room for the asylum seekers from UK.]

 

Patel Spells Out the End of the Refugee Convention in the UK The deal with Rwanda (whose authorities British officials accused last year of killings, disappearances and torture), to relocate asylum seekers there, spells the end of the Refugee Convention in the UK and a return to the 1930s and ‘40s, when desperate refugees from Nazism were forced to seek sponsors and prove that they would not be a charge on public funds in order to get visas. The 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights, declaring the universal right to ‘seek and enjoy asylum’, and the 1951 Refugee Convention, were meant to put an end to that, recognising the need for refugees to flee without papers. But the deathly Australian ‘offshoring’ model, which until now only Israel and Denmark have sought to copy, inverts the meaning of asylum – and makes a mockery of the parliamentary process, where the Lords are fighting tooth and nail to preserve asylum rights.

Rwanda Genocide of 1994 - some 200,000 Hutu were exterminated by the Government A planned campaign of mass murder in Rwanda that occurred over the course of some 100 days in April–July 1994. The genocide was conceived by extremist elements of Rwanda’s majority Hutu population who planned to kill the minority Tutsi population and anyone who opposed those genocidal intentions. It is estimated that some 200,000 Hutu, spurred on by propaganda from various media outlets, participated in the genocide. More than 800,000 civilians—primarily Tutsi, but also moderate Hutu—were killed during the campaign. As many as 2,000,000 Rwandans fled the country during or immediately after the genocide.

Continuing Conflicts That Create Refugees - April 2022 Deteriorated Situations April 2022 Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria, Korean Peninsula, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict, Ukraine, El SalvadorIsrael/Palestine, Iran, Libya, Tunisia Conflict Risk Alerts for April Korean Peninsula, Pakistan, Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict, Ukraine, Israel/Palestine, Libya Improved Situations: None - Resolution Opportunities: None Hostilities between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone – that saw the first use of heavy weapons since the 2020 war in March – could intensify further. Libya’s political crisis could turn violent again as the two rival governments compete for control of the state’s resources, putting the 2020 ceasefire at risk. Rising tensions in Israel-Palestine could peak ahead of April religious holidays – risking a wider confrontation – following deadly violence in March that killed at least twenty. North Korea repeatedly tested components of a military reconnaissance satellite in March, indicating a potential provocative space launch in the coming weeks. Prime Minister Imran Khan is facing a no-confidence vote on 4 April, the most serious test case to his premiership to date, which could fuel further political instability in Pakistan. Source: International Crisis Group, https://www.crisisgroup.org/crisiswatch