A partnership to address shared international challenge of illegal migration and break the business model of people smuggling gangs
By Olayiwola Balogun – The UK government has on Thursday 14 April set out bold new plans to tackle illegal migration, control our borders and crack down on the criminal gangs exploiting this international crisis.
Central to this is a world-first Migration and Economic Development Partnership signed by the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, and Rwandan Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Co-Operation, Vincent Biruta.
This will see migrants who make dangerous or illegal journeys, such as by small boat or hidden in lorries, have their asylum claim processed in Rwanda. Those whose claims are accepted will then be supported to build a new and prosperous life in one of the fastest-growing economies, recognised globally for its record on welcoming and integrating migrants.
Under this Partnership the UK is investing £120 million into the economic development and growth of Rwanda. Funding will also be provided to support the delivery of asylum operations, accommodation and integration, similar to the costs incurred in the UK for these services.
Alongside this action, which will disrupt the business model of people-smuggling gangs, the military will also now take operational command of responding to small boats in the Channel, in partnership with Border Force.
This will happen with immediate effect, and be backed up by £50 million in new funding. This change will deliver new boats, aerial surveillance and expert military personnel. In doing so it will bolster Border Force teams and their existing patrol vessels and provide a Wildcat helicopter.
Together this will significantly enhance our ability to detect boats. The increased surveillance will mean we can better gather evidence for criminal investigations, ensuring more people-smugglers who trade in these life-threatening journeys can be referred for prosecution and brought to justice.
Finally, to address the unacceptable, £4.7 million per-day cost to the taxpayer from housing migrants in hotels (including those who have arrived through resettlement programmes), we will be introducing a new, nationwide dispersal system so asylum pressures are more equally spread across local authorities. We will also shortly open a new, bespoke, asylum reception centre in Linton-on-Ouse.
Home Secretary, Priti Patel, said: The global migration crisis and how we tackle illegal migration requires new world-leading solutions. There are an estimated 80 million people displaced in the world and the global approach to asylum and migration is broken.
Existing approaches have failed and there is no single solution to tackle these problems. Change is needed because people are dying attempting to come to the UK illegally.
Today we have signed a world-leading Migration Partnership with Rwanda which can see those arriving dangerously, illegally or unnecessarily into the UK relocated to have their claims for asylum considered and, if recognised as refugees, to build their lives there. This will help break the people smugglers’ business model and prevent loss of life, while ensuring protection for the genuinely vulnerable.
This government is delivering the first comprehensive overhaul of the asylum system in decades. At the heart of this approach is fairness. Access to the UK’s asylum system must be based on need, not on the ability to pay people smugglers. The demands on the current system, the cost to the taxpayer, and the flagrant abuses are increasing. The British public have rightly had enough.
That is why we are overhauling this broken system. Our New Plan for Immigration will improve support for those directly fleeing oppression, persecution and tyranny through safe and legal routes, deter illegal entry, and make it easier to remove those with no right to be in the UK.
Rwandan Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, Vincent Biruta said: Rwanda is committed to international co-operation and partnership on migration, in particular the opportunities that a robust protection system as well as a comprehensive human capital investment program can create, for migrants and for development of the host country.
There is a global responsibility to prioritise the safety and well-being of migrants, and Rwanda welcomes this Partnership with the United Kingdom to host asylum seekers and migrants, and offer them legal pathways to residence. This is about ensuring that people are protected, respected, and empowered to further their own ambitions and settle permanently in Rwanda if they choose.
These new measures, combined with the reforms to the asylum system and the changes to our laws in the Nationality and Borders Bill, will help deter illegal entry into the UK. In doing so it will help break the business model of the criminal smuggling gangs, protect the lives of those they endanger, ensure continued support for the truly vulnerable, and enhance our ability to remove those with no right to be in the UK.
The UK has a proud history of welcoming those in need. In the last year alone, the UK has provided support for people across the world, providing sanctuary to over 97,000 Hong Kong British Nationals and over 13,000 Afghan nationals – and more than 50,000 people have been granted visas under the Family and Homes for Ukraine Schemes.
It is by reforming the asylum system and taking bold, international action to address the global migration crisis that we can ensure we can keep providing support and protection for those who need it, especially those most vulnerable, through proper safe and legal routes.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave a speech on plans to tackle illegal migration. He said: So from today, our new Migration and Economic Development Partnership will mean that anyone entering the UK illegally – as well as those who have arrived illegally since January 1st – may now be relocated to Rwanda.
This innovative approach – driven our shared humanitarian impulse and made possible by Brexit freedoms – will provide safe and legal routes for asylum, while disrupting the business model of the gangs, because it means that economic migrants taking advantage of the asylum system will not get to stay in the UK, while those in genuine need will be properly protected, including with access to legal services on arrival in Rwanda, and given the opportunity to build a new life in that dynamic country, supported by the funding we are providing.
The deal we have done is uncapped and Rwanda will have the capacity to resettle tens of thousands of people in the years ahead.
And let’s be clear, Rwanda is one of the safest countries in the world, globally recognised for its record on welcoming and integrating migrants.
Later this year it will welcome leaders from across the Commonwealth, and before the pandemic, in 2018, the IMF said Rwanda was the world’s fourth fastest growing economy.
We are confident that our new Migration Partnership is fully compliant with our international legal obligations, but nevertheless we expect this will be challenged in the courts, and if this country is seen as a soft touch for illegal migration by some of our partners, it is precisely because we have such a formidable army of politically motivated lawyers who for years who have made it their business to thwart removals and frustrate the Government.
So I know that this system will not take effect overnight, but I promise that we will do whatever it takes to deliver this new approach, initially within the limits of the existing legal and constitutional frameworks, but also prepared to explore any and all further legal reforms which may be necessary.
Because this problem has bedevilled our country for too long and caused far too much human suffering and tragedy, and this is the government that refuses to duck the difficult decisions, this is the government that makes the big calls, and I profoundly believe there is simply no other option.
And I say to those who would criticise our plan today, we have a plan; what is your alternative?
I know there are some who believe we should just turn these boats back at sea.
But after much study and consultation – including with Border Force, the police, national crime agency, military and maritime experts, to whom I pay tribute for all the incredible work that they do dealing with this problem as things stand – it’s clear that there are extremely limited circumstances when you can safely do this in the English Channel.
And it doesn’t help that this approach, I don’t think, would be supported by our French partners, and relying solely on this course of action is simply not practical in my view.
I know there are others who would say that we should just negotiate a deal with France and the EU.
And we have made repeated and generous offers to our French friends and we will continue to press them and the EU for the comprehensive returns agreement that would solve this problem.
We remain grateful to the gendarmes on the beach, for the joint intelligence work and the co-operation that has stopped thousands of boats.
We would like to deepen that work and we continue to believe that a deal with France and the EU is in the national interest of all our countries.
But we must have our own framework for full sovereignty over our borders and we must find a way to stop these boats now, not lose thousands more lives while waiting for a deal that just doesn’t exist.
And I know there will be a vocal minority who will think these measures are draconian and lacking in compassion. I simply don’t agree.
There is no humanity or compassion in allowing desperate and innocent people to have their dreams of a better life exploited by ruthless gangs, as they are taken to their deaths in unseaworthy boats.
And there is no humanity or compassion in endlessly condemning the people smugglers, but then time and again ducking the big calls needed to break the business model of the gangs and stop these boats coming.
And there is no humanity or compassion in calling for unlimited safe and legal routes, offering the false hope of asylum in the UK to anyone who wants it, because that is just unsustainable.
There are currently 80 million displaced people in the world, many in failed States where governments can’t meet their aspirations.
In an era of mobile connectivity they are a call or a text away from potentially being swept up in the tide of people smuggling.
The answer cannot be for the UK to become the haven for all of them.
That is a call for open borders by the back door, a political argument masquerading as a humanitarian policy.
Those in favour of this approach should be honest about it and argue for it openly.
We reject it, as the British people have consistently rejected it at the ballot box – in favour of controlled immigration.
We simply cannot have a policy of saying anyone who wants to live here can do so.
We’ve got to be able to control who comes into this country and the terms on which they remain.
And we must do this in the spirit of our history of providing refuge.
And in that way we can more than play our part in offering sanctuary to thousands fleeing persecution.
But then of course other countries must play their part too.
And that is what I think is most exciting about the partnership we have agreed with Rwanda today because we believe it will become a new international standard in addressing the challenges of global migration and people smuggling.
So I am grateful for Rwanda’s leadership and partnership and we stand ready to work with other nations on similar agreements, as well as wider reforms to the international asylum framework.
As I say, we will continue to work with our French friends to tackle the gangs, we will continue to lead co-operation with crime and intelligence partners across Europe, we will continue to seek a returns agreement with the EU or with France.
But in the meantime, and for the foreseeable future, we need this new approach.
The people smugglers are undermining confidence in our borders.
They are betraying all those who do the right thing, who try to come here legally – through forms of migration or the safe and legal routes provided for refuge.
They are undermining the natural compassion and goodwill that people have towards refugees in this country.
And they are endangering human life day after day.
And though the way ahead will be hard, and though we can expect many challenges and many obstacles to be thrown up against this plan, I believe this plan is the right way forward, because the people smugglers must be stopped in order to save countless lives; and because tackling illegal migration is precisely the way to sustain a safe, legal and generous offer of sanctuary to those in need, that is in the very best traditions of this country and the values we stand for in the world.
Kindly follow us on twitter:@AfricanVoice2
