15- November-2023- Aljazeera
Calais, France – On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom unanimously ruled that the government’s plan to send more than 24,000 refugees to Rwanda in a controversial 140 million pounds ($174m) deal is unlawful.
Somali and Sudanese refugees say they are elated by the British court’s decision to block the government’s Rwanda asylum deal.
In blocking the deal, the apex court upheld a ruling by lower court over the last year that asylum claimants sent there were also at risk of being returned to their home countries, contrary to an international law principle known as non-refoulement
“There are substantial grounds for believing that asylum seekers would face a real risk of ill-treatment by reason of refoulement to their country of origin if they were removed to Rwanda,” part of the judgment read on Wednesday.
The ruling has dealt a blow to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s much-touted migration policy and could potentially fracture the ruling Conservative party ahead of next year’s general election. But those at the centre of the controversial policy say they are relieved by the outcome.
Despite this progress, Rwanda remains the world’s 24th poorest country according to the most recent World Economic Outlook report and 21 percent of its youths are unemployed according to the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda.
Mohammed Osman has also been disappointed about the deportation plan to Rwanda.
“How can I go to Rwanda? Rwanda is also a poor country,” said the Somali national who fled to the UK after his mother sold a piece of land to help him pay for his journey through Kenya, Turkey and Europe, which took four months to complete. “There are no jobs and everything is very difficult there.”
While he was in Calais, deciding how to cross the English Channel to reach the UK, he never veered far from the tent he shared with a handful of other Somali migrants in a wooded area near the train station. The 32-year-old fled Baidoa leaving behind his wife and three children after repeated threats from the al-Qaeda-linked armed group al-Shabab, which disapproves of his job as a healthcare worker
“I am very happy to not go to Rwanda! Maybe my dreams will come true to stay in the UK to work hard, to continue my business studies which I began in Sudan, and to hopefully see my family someday soon,” says Mahmoud Altigani, 26, one of those who was to be sent to Rwanda
Until April 15, he ran a cafe and a retail business in Khartoum. Just before noon that day, he heard the deep ro犀利士 aring of military helicopters in the sky, followed by combat jeeps thundering through the streets.
Sudan’s civil war had caught up with his family: The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) were bombarding residential areas in Altigani’s hometown of el-Fasher in the country’s northwest because the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) had taken cover amongst civilians. His three sisters and mother scrambled under a bed, while he and his two brothers took shelter in the middle of their red mud-brick house.
During a short respite, Altigani led his family into the back of his pickup truck and sped off to stay with a friend in the south of the city. Two days later, his phone screen lit with a text message from his neighbour: “Call me. Your house has been bombed
When the attacks ended, Altigani returned to see the damage and collect some belongings. In the partially destroyed house, he saw guns laid out everywhere and a soldier sleeping in his bed. “This is our house now,” the soldier said. “You can’t come in.”
He was shocked but continued on his journey.
After travelling northwards through Europe, he finally arrived in the small French city of Calais, the closest point in mainland Europe to the UK, through which thousands of migrants pass before risking their lives to cross the English Channel and request asylum on the other side
This time, Altigani and his family fled to a refugee reception centre in Tina, close to the border with Chad. Because he was the eldest of his siblings, his family decided he should seek asylum in the UK. In Tripoli, working briefly at a small supermarket while awaiting the Mediterranean crossing to Lampedusa, he first heard about the Rwanda asylum plan
Rwanda’s record
The Rwanda asylum plan is an immigration policy conceived by former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and championed by the incumbent Sunak, to send people seeking asylum to Rwanda. It was a promise made to garner votes for the 2024 election and to deter people crossing the Channel in small boats, to get to the UK – a journey thousands make yearly.
According to the deal signed in April 2022, the UK was to send undocumented migrants in chartered flights to Rwanda, a country roughly the same size as Wales, for a five-year period. The African nation would then be responsible for processing their asylum claims and either granting them refugee status or deporting them to their country of origin
Yet Rwanda is proud of being a nation open to receiving foreigners. President Kagame grew up as a refugee when his parents fled to Uganda in the late 1950s. Supporters say his upbringing allows him to value refugees.
“President Kagame is keen to make Rwanda a cosmopolitan society where you have various cultures,” said Gatete Nyiringabo, a Kigali-based lawyer who says criticism of Rwanda is down to Western bias. “Diversity is also a bet of the president and his party to dilute the question of division between the historically divided ethnic groups.”
Some experts believe migration is also a way for Kagame to forge a strong, international image and distract critics for his alleged support of the M23 rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s volatile east
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