A ruling issued yesterday by the European Court of Human Rights put a temporary halt to asylum plans in Britain, and the chartered plane that was supposed to take asylum seekers from Britain to Rwanda was forced to leave Boscombe Down airbase in Wiltshire last night without a single passenger on board.
Britain faces a long legal battle after the British government was forced yesterday to abandon plans to send a plane full of asylum seekers to Rwanda, where more than 30 asylum seekers were to be sent to the African country which, according to an agreement with the United Kingdom, would handle their asylum cases.
But in recent days, legal objections have caused the number of passengers to drop to only about seven.
الليلة الماضية، وجهت المحكمة الأوروبية لحقوق الإنسان ضربة قاضية للخطط البريطانية لإرسال طالبي اللجوء إلى رواندا، على الأقل في الوقت الحالي، وذلك بحسب تيني هيرسينغ كنودسن مراسلة موقع الإذاعة الدنماركية في المملكة المتحدة والتي قالت: “لقد سارت بشكل مثير للغاية. قيل لأحد الرجال الذي كان من المفترض أن يكون على متن الطائرة المتجهة إلى رواندا في الساعة 7:30 مساءً أن المحكمة الأوروبية لحقوق الإنسان ستتدخل في قضيته، بعد فترة وجيزة ، حدث نفس الشيء لبقية الذين كانوا على متن الطائرة، في الساعة 22:15 أي قبل ربع ساعة فقط من إقلاع الطائرة تم إنزال آخر شخص من الطائرة. لا نعرف ما إذا كانوا قد ربطوا أحزمة مقاعدهم على متن الطائرة، لكن الطائرة ألغيت”.
Asylum agreement between Britain and Rwanda
In April 2022, the United Kingdom signed an asylum agreement with Rwanda.
The agreement stipulates that Rwanda will receive asylum seekers from the United Kingdom in exchange for a fee.
The five-year court will send some refugees to Rwanda to seek asylum there. .
قد يتم منحهم وضع اللاجئ الدائم للبقاء في رواندا. إذا لم يكن الأمر كذلك فيمكنهم تقديم طلب للاستقرار هناك لأسباب أخرى، أو طلب اللجوء في “بلد ثالث آمن” ولن يتمكنوا من العودة إلى المملكة المتحدة.
تستهدف السياسة في الغالب الشباب غير المتزوجين الذين يصلون إلى المملكة المتحدة من خلال ما تسميه الحكومة “أساليب غير قانونية أو خطيرة أو غير ضرورية” مثل القوارب الصغيرة أو المخبأة في الشاحنات.
In return, Rwanda will receive one billion kroner. At the same time, the UK will cover the accommodation costs for the asylum seekers as well as their transport to Rwanda.
According to the British government, the deal is an attempt to deter refugees and migrants from buying trips to Britain via the English Channel from people smugglers.
Source: BBC
The plane was scheduled to depart as the first of several, as part of an agreement Britain had made with Rwanda.
But according to the European Court of Human Rights, British courts did not thoroughly investigate whether it was actually justified to send people to Rwanda.
This is despite the fact that a British court ruled late on Monday that there was no basis for halting flights to Rwanda.
The correspondent reports that the legal challenges to British asylum policy specifically concern whether it is actually legal to send asylum seekers to another country in the manner the UK intends. The question is whether this is permissible under the European Convention on Human Rights, which the UK has signed and remains a party to. Can people be sent to Rwanda, a country 6,500 kilometers away? And can one be sure they will be treated properly once they arrive in Rwanda? The European Court of Human Rights believes these issues have not been thoroughly investigated. As long as there is no such guarantee, people cannot be sent, the correspondent notes. She adds that the court also ruled that asylum seekers cannot be sent until 14 days after a decision is made regarding the legality of the action. Therefore, a major legal battle is expected in the coming weeks, she concludes.
Considering all options
The British government recently indicated that it might consider withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights if it hinders its planned asylum policy. When asked whether the time was right for the UK to withdraw due to the government's difficulties in implementing its policy towards Rwanda, Boris Johnson replied that it was very possible. Yesterday, he stated that all these options were under constant review. Today, the message from Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey is that the government is not planning to withdraw but intends to appeal the European Court of Human Rights ruling to allow flights to take off with refugees to Rwanda.
Asylum seekers in the United Kingdom
In 2021, 75% of arrivals were men aged between 18 and 39. About 5% of men were over 40, 7% of women were over 18, and 12% were children under 18 (three-quarters of whom were male).
في السابق ، كان الإيرانيون يشكلون الغالبية العظمى من الوافدين – 80٪ في 2018 و 66٪ في 2019.
More recently, there has been a greater mix of nationalities crossing the border. Iranians made up 30% of those arriving by small boat last year, while Iraqis accounted for 21%, Eritreans 11%, and Syrians 9%, according to the UK Home Office.
The message from the British government today is that they have already begun planning their next trip, and that the European Court of Human Rights' decision will not deter them.
Refugee agreement between Denmark and Rwanda
According to the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR), what happened in the United Kingdom is causing doubt and uncertainty regarding the Danish agreement.
في العام الماضي، حيث دخلت الدنمارك أيضاً في “اتفاقية تعاون” مع رواندا مما أتاح إمكانية معاملة اللجوء خارج حدود الدنمارك.
وعلى الرغم من أنه ليس من الواضح بالضبط كيف سيتم صياغة مثل هذا الاتفاق بين الدنمارك ورواندا، إلا أن قرار المحكمة الأوروبية لحقوق الإنسان يخلق حالة من عدم اليقين بشأن الخطط الدنماركية، وذلك بحسب تقييم منظمة العفو الدولية، الذي تنتقد مثل هذه الخطة: “أكدت المحكمة العديد من الانتقادات التي وجهها عدد كبير من المنظمات تجاه هذه السياسة، بعبارة أخرى، تخاطر الاتفاقيات بانتهاك حقوق الإنسان الأساسية، هذا يعني أن آفاق اتفاقية لجوء دنماركية مع رواندا أصبحت غير مؤكدة الآن بحسب تصريح مارتن ليمبيرج بيدرسن مدير السياسات في الفرع الدنماركي لمنظمة العفو الدولية لوكالة الأنباء ريتساو.
(Sources: Danish Radio website, BBC and Sky News)
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