On his first day in office, new Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer reportedly scrapped plans to send illegal boat migrants to Rwanda without putting them up in UK hotels.
Plans first proposed by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson to tackle the English Channel migrant crisis in 2022 – to have irregular migrants’ asylum claims accepted at processing centres in the East African country of Rwanda – have been abandoned by the left-wing Labour government on its first day, party sources said. Said Telegraph.
An insider told the paper the plan was “dead”, adding: “If Rishi Sunak thought Rwanda would work out he wouldn’t have called an election. It was a fraud and by calling an election he is admitting that fact.”
The assessment is similar to claims made by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage before the election, who argued that Sunak called the election early to avoid the embarrassment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) blocking migrant deportation flights in the summer of 2022, setting off a years-long legal battle and putting all deportations to Rwanda on hold.
But unlike Farage, Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government has rejected the idea of Britain withdrawing from the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights, which is closely linked to the European Union but is technically a separate body from it, meaning its member states are not affected by Brexit.
Red wave: Labour wins Blair-style majority as Britain braces for five years of left-wing governmentshttps://t.co/gPW6x5dckp
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 5, 2024
Indeed, Starmer, a strong opponent of Brexit, has hinted at seeking closer ties with the EU on immigration, including the possibility of accepting a certain number of EU migrants per year in exchange for a deportation policy that would allow the UK to send illegal immigrants back to the EU.
The scrapping of the Rwanda policy, which the Conservatives argued would be a deterrent to future boat migrants, means the government is likely to have to abandon the £270 million it has already sent to Kigali, but will not have to send the next two instalments of £50 million in 2025 and 2026.
Labour’s plan to tackle the migration crisis aims to step up efforts to crack down on people smuggling rings operating on both sides of the English Channel and pursue unscrupulous employers in the UK who employ illegal immigrants.
The British government has already pledged to send around half a billion pounds of tax money to France to step up enforcement, but the success has been limited.
Nigel Farage, finally entering Parliament after decades of political activism, says the government should order the Royal Navy to immediately return boat migrants to French shores and stop making payments to Paris if the French navy continues to escort migrants into British waters.
Danegeld: Britain will pay France $500 million to police its beaches and build migrant detention centres https://t.co/BY7Su0m2Yr
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 10, 2023
