After abandoning Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda plan, the Labour Party might allow over 100,000 migrants to apply for asylum, a spokesman for Sir Keir Starmer suggested on July 8 – Daily Express wrote.
Among the 102,000 migrants who will be processed through the asylum system are at least 90,000 migrants who were scheduled for deportation to Rwanda.
Monday marked the first time a migrant boat had crossed the Channel since Sir Keir’s election victory, and his spokesperson acknowledged that the government would face a “challenging” summer.
The shadow home secretary, James Cleverly, expressed reacted: “The very first thing Labour did in government was scrap the Rwanda deterrent.”
The former home secretary added: “The second is to grant an effective amnesty to 100,000 illegal migrants, who were banned from claiming asylum under our plans. It has taken the Labour Party less than five days to make the UK more attractive to asylum seekers than ever before.”
Sir Keir’s spokesman also noted, the Rwanda scheme is “dead and buried” as the scheme was cancelled and flights won’t go ahead. He highlighted that “the Government is now focused on the work needed to secure our borders and smash the gangs in addition to recruiting for the Border Security Command.
Under the Government’s plan for a new Border Security Command, more British investigators and spies will be based in Europe to hunt down migrant smuggling gangs. Labour is hoping MI5 intelligence officers will treat people smugglers like foreign spies and terrorists.
Rwandan Government Breaks Silence
However the newly elected prime minister canceled deportation flights to Kigali, but the Rwandan government insisted it “remains committed to finding solutions to the global migration crisis.” Sir Keir has called the plan a “gimmick” and stated that funds sent to Kigali will instead be used to fund the establishment of a new Border Security Command. No more funding will be given to the Rwandan government, a government source informed the Daily Express.
“Rwanda takes note of the UK Government’s intention to terminate the Migration and Economic Development Partnership Agreement, as provided for under the terms of the treaty passed by both our parliaments,” the Rwandan government said in a statement late on Monday night.
“This partnership was initiated by the Government of the UK in order to address the crisis of irregular migration affecting the UK – a problem of the UK, not Rwanda.
“Rwanda has fully upheld its side of the agreement, including with regard to finances, and remains committed to finding solutions to the global migration crisis, including providing safety, dignity and opportunity to refugees and migrants who come to our country.”
The UK has already paid £220m to the Rwandan Government since April 2022, with further annual payments of £50m originally scheduled for the next three years. This would have amounted to a total of £370m over five years. If more than 300 people were eventually sent to Kigali, the UK would pay a one-off sum of £120m into the fund, with further payments of £20,000 per individual relocated. Under a break clause in the agreement, Britain can withdraw from two further payments of £50 million in 2025 and 2026 without any penalty but it is likely the Government will have to continue to fund the four asylum seekers flown to Kigali.
