Calais Migrants Concerned They May Have To Apply For Asylum Elsewhere After UK-Rwanda Deal

TOPSHOT - Migrants wait for a bus in Calais, north of France, on March 16, 2022, to go bac
SAMEER AL-DOUMY/AFP via Getty Images
Chris Tomlinson

Migrants in Calais have expressed concerns over the new migrant deal between the UK and Rwanda, with some stating they are considering looking to seek asylum in another country.

Earlier this month, the British government signed a £120 million deal with Rwanda that could see male illegal immigrants sent to the African country who illegally cross the English Channel and remain int he country while their asylum claims are being processed.

Migrants in Calais, who are hoping to cross the channel and reach the British mainland, are now expressing concerns over the programme and what will happen to them if they cross illegally, the European Union-funded website InfoMigrants reports.

“If we go to Rwanda, are we going to stay there for a lifetime?” a teen migrant named Jemy told a writer for the website, while another migrant, a man from Iraqi Kurdistan, claimed the did not even know where Rwanda was and that he was considering applying for asylum in Germany instead.

“I made this whole journey to get to a safe country, to build a new life, and yet they want to send me to Rwanda. Together with two other Afghans, we decided to apply for asylum in France, although the conditions are more difficult,” a 20-year-old from Afghanistan said.

Others, primarily Sudanese nationals, say they are not deterred by the deal and will try and enter the UK. “We will try to pass and, once there, we will do everything not to go to Rwanda,” a 25-year-old Sudanese man said.

While the deal may work to deter some migrants from trying to cross the channel, some in the UK have expressed scepticism that the policy will even work due to legal challenges.

“If — and I really mean if — within the next week we start seeing plane loads being taken to Rwanda, that may well act as a short-term deterrent. After all, why would you pay a criminal trafficker 3,000 euros, 5,000 euros if you thought immediately you would be sent to Rwanda,” Brexit leader Nigel Farage said earlier this month.

However, Farage stated he did not expect the policy to work in the long term and highlighted prior reports of human rights abuses in Rwanda.

“It’s difficult to think of a country with a much worse recent human rights record than Rwanda and it’s only a matter of time before we start to get stories from camps in Rwanda about abuses of all kinds and that would lead I think to some sense of international outrage,” Farage said.

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