(CNN)People seeking asylum in the UK could now be relocated to Rwanda under a controversial new scheme blasted by international human rights groups as โshockingly ill-conceivedโ and contrary to international obligations.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the scheme an โinnovative approach, driven by our shared humanitarian impulse and made possible by Brexit freedoms,โ on Thursday, saying that with the UKโs help, Rwanda will have the capacity to resettle โtens of thousands of people in the years ahead.โ
Speaking at a joint news conference in the Rwandan capital Kigali on Thursday,ย UK Home Secretary Priti Patelย said that people relocated to Rwanda โwill be given the support including up to five years of training, integration, accommodation, health care, so that they can resettle and thrive.โ
Patelย also called the plan a โjoint new migration and economic development partnership,โ saying that the UK is โmaking substantial investment in the economic development of Rwanda.โ
Patel insisted the aim of the agreement was to improve the UK asylum system, which she said has faced โa combination of real humanitarian crises and evil people smugglers profiteering by exploiting the system for their own gains.โ
When a reporter asked what the criteria would be for relocation, Patel said โwe are very clear that everyone who enters the UK illegally will be considered for resettlement and being brought over to Rwanda, Iโm not going to divulge specific criteria for a number of reasons.โ
Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta said Rwanda was pleased to work with the UK.
When asked whether Rwanda has the infrastructure to host the influx, Biruta said the country has the capacity to receive migrants and will invest in new infrastructure to educate and house migrants with the UKโs support.
Biruta added that the program will only be for people seeking asylum in the UK and who are in the UK, and that they would โprefer not to receive people from immediate neighbors like the DRC, Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania.โ
โTraded like commoditiesโ
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) expressed โstrong opposition and concernsโ about the plan and urged both countries to reconsider.
โPeople fleeing war, conflict and persecution deserve compassion and empathy. They should not be traded like commodities and transferred abroad for processing,โ UNHCRโs Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Gillian Triggs said in a statement.
โUNHCR remains firmly opposed to arrangements that seek to transfer refugees and asylum-seekers to third countries in the absence of sufficient safeguards and standards. Such arrangements simply shift asylum responsibilities, evade international obligations, and are contrary to the letter and spirit of the Refugee Convention,โ Triggs said.
UNHCR also said that the plan would increase risks and cause refugees to look for alternative routes, putting more pressure on front line states.
โExperience shows that these agreements are eye-wateringly expensive usually. They often violate international law. They donโt lead to solutions, rather to widespread detention or to more smuggling,โ UNHCR Senior legal officer Larry Bottinick told British radio station Times Radio on Thursday.
Human Rights Watch was fiercely critical of the plan, issuing a strongly-wordedย statement.
โRwandaโs appalling human rights record is well documented,โ it said.
โRwanda has a known track record of extrajudicial killings, suspicious deaths in custody, unlawful or arbitrary detention, torture, and abusive prosecutions, particularly targeting critics and dissidents. In fact, the UK directly raised its concerns about respect for human rights with Rwanda, and grants asylum to Rwandans who have fled the country, including four just last year,โ it said, adding, โAt a time when the people of the UK have opened their hearts and homes to Ukrainians, the government is choosing to act with cruelty and rip up their obligations to others fleeing war and persecution.โ
Amnesty International UKโs Refugee and Migrant Rights Director Steve Valdez-Symonds described the plan as โshockingly ill-conceived.โ
โSending people to another country โ let alone one with such a dismal human rights record โ for asylum โprocessingโ is the very height of irresponsibility and shows how far removed from humanity and reality the Government now is on asylum issues,โ Valdez-Symonds said in aย statement.
As part of the new plan, the British Royal Navy will take over operational command from Border Force in the English Channel โwith the aim that no boat makes it to the UK undetected,โ Johnson said.
It also allows UK authorities to prosecute those who arrive illegally, โwith life sentences for anyone piloting the boats,โ he said.
The English Channel, a narrow waterway between Britain and France, is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. Refugees and migrants fleeing conflict, persecution and poverty in the worldโs poorest or war-torn countries risk the dangerous crossing, often in dinghies unfit for the voyage and at the mercy of people smugglers, hoping to claim asylum or economic opportunities in Britain.
Last November,ย 27 people drownedย in bitterly cold waters off the coast of France after an inflatable boat carrying migrants bound for Britain capsized, in one of the deadliest incidents in the English Channel in recent years.
CNNโs Kara Fox and Helen Regan contributed to this report.
