The UK-Rwanda Partnership: A Timeline

The controversial Rwanda scheme has rarely been out of the headlines. The Byline Intelligence Team, in partnership with the Action On Armed Violence charity, takes a look at the story so far

It’s been five months since news of the plan to deport some people seeking asylum who arrive in the UK via the Channel to Rwanda – five months of fear and fury, legal challenges, newspaper smears, and misreporting of the facts. 

But ever since rumours were heard in April that a plan was in the works to carry out this “offshore processing”, not a single person has actually been deported to the east African country – with some expressing doubts that they ever will be.

The Byline Intelligence Team, with the support of the charity Action On Armed Violence (AOAV), put together a timeline of the policy, the international response, and the uncertainty of its future. 

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The Beginning of the Policy

On 5 April 2022, news broke that then Prime Minister Boris Johnson was set to announce a new immigration plan to tackle Channel crossings, which were set to reach record levels this year. The Times reported that the plan would involve the deportation of migrant people to Rwanda. Nine days later this was confirmed. 

Initially, those reporting on the story assumed the policy was to mirror that of Australia – offshore processing where migrant people would be held in detention in Rwanda while their asylum applications were being processed, before returning to the UK.

However, Byline Times journalists quickly realised that this was not the case. Studying the Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) between the UK and Rwandan Governments showed that, rather than offshore processing, the policy plan was for people to be deported to Rwanda where they could then claim asylum and live as a refugee. There would be no route back to the UK. 

The policy, of course, began before the announcement. As early as September 2020, the Government had been drawing up a shortlist of countries to agree a deal with on migration. Last February, a list of seven had been agreed, with Rwanda failing to make the cut.

The following month, Downing Street’s policy unit pushed the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to “look again at the viability of” Rwanda and other countries which had not made the final shortlist. The FCDO responded: “We had previously ruled all these countries out on political and/or legal grounds. We see little reason to change that.”

By April this year, however, the deal with Rwanda was signed and announced.

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Opposition Mounts

Almost immediately, migrant and refugee rights activists and agencies expressed their concern about the policy of outsourcing the UK asylum system to Rwanda. 

The United Nations Refugee Agency – the UNHCR – released a statement on the day the MOU was published, saying it had not been consulted on the negotiations and stating its opposition to “arrangements that seek to transfer refugees and asylum seekers to third countries in the absence of sufficient safeguards and standards”.

In Rwanda, Leader of the Opposition Victoire Ingabire openly criticised the plan, saying that her country should not be dealing with a British migration backlog, when the population faces other important issues.

Meanwhile, letters from Home Office Under Secretary Matthew Rycroft – reported by the Guardian three days after the announcement – expressed reservations that the policy would not be value for money for the UK taxpayer, due to the uncertain evidence that it would act as a deterrent to people crossing the Channel. 

Humanitarian opposition came from the very top in the UK, with both the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Prince of Wales weighing in. In June, during a visit to Rwanda, Prince Charles privately remarked that the Government’s approach to immigration was “appalling”. 

Opposition MPs in the UK took to the airwaves and the House of Commons to air their criticisms of the policy.

On 15 June 2022, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper called the scheme “a shambles and shameful”, while raising concerns about the human rights of refugees in Rwanda. She was joined by her colleague Stephen Kinnock, Shadow Immigration Minister, who described the plan as “unworkable” on Sky News.