Starmer buries plan for Rwanda deportations
For years, consecutive conservative governments have planned to deport irregular refugees from Britain to Rwanda. The idea was never implemented. The new Labour government has now finally put an end to the program.
Britain will no longer deport irregular migrants to Rwanda. The new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer intends to stop the controversial program for deporting migrants to Rwanda of the conservative predecessor government. Starmer declared after the first cabinet meeting of the new Labour government, "The Rwanda program is dead and buried before it even began." He is "not willing to play games anymore that don't deter."
The leader of the social democratic Labour Party had already announced during the campaign to cancel the Rwanda program. Labour won the parliamentary election with a very clear majority on Thursday. The government change took place within hours.
Starmer's predecessor, the conservative ex-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, wanted to deport people who came to Britain without the necessary papers, disregarding their origin, to Rwanda. They were supposed to apply for asylum there, a return to Britain was excluded. Critics saw this as a breach of international obligations.
Every year, tens of thousands of people reach the British coast irregularly via the English Channel, mostly in small boats. The accommodation in hotels and other shelters costs taxpayers billions. Sunak's conservative government relied on the fact that the Rwanda plan would deter migrants. However, the number of arrivals has recently risen again.
The deal with Rwandan President Paul Kagame, whom critics accuse of human rights violations, has cost British taxpayers several hundred million pounds so far. In return, no migrant was deported against their will to East Africa.
- The new Labour Party leader, Keir Starmer, has strongly criticized the Conservative Party's previous immigration policy, which involved planning to deport irregular refugees to Rwanda.
- Under Keir Starmer's leadership, the Labour Party has officially scrapped the controversial Rwanda deportation program, a policy previously proposed by the Conservative Party's former Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak.
- As the new British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer has made it clear that he will not pursue the immigration policy of his Conservative Party predecessors, such as the proposed Rwanda refugee policy.
