Declaration

The rwandan opposition party, the Unified Democratic Forces, FDU-Inkingi, is deeply disappointed by the ruling of High Court of UK about asylum seekers’ deportation to Rwanda.

On Monday December the 19th, on the international migration day, the UK High Court has ruled that the government’s plan to deport migrants to Rwanda is lawful.

The ruling is a big disappointment. It serves a political agenda instead of protecting the most vulnerable that is traumatised people fleeing from war and persecution.

The court has legalised a policy which is inhumane, immoral and based on lies that Rwanda is a paradise for asylum seekers.

Rwanda is not a safe country.  The report of Freedom House 2021 gives Rwanda a score of 22% in terms of political and civil rights. Rwanda is accused, even by its ally, the United States of America, let alone NGOs Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, of unlawful detention and extrajudicial killings, torture, kidnappings and transnational repression.  Many members of our party in Rwanda are in jail, have been killed or have disappeared.

This is taking place when Rwanda is accused by UN experts of supporting militarily, politically and financially a murderous rebel group in the DRC, the M23 (Mouvement du 23 Mars). The armed group is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Furthermore there is nothing to offer to those asylum seekers in terms of social and economic integration. Rwanda remains the poorest of the poor, the most populated country in Africa, one the three most aided country in the world with the highest unemployment among the youth. Rwanda would do better to repatriate its own refugee nationals scattered in all the countries around the world before worrying about the banished from the United Kingdom.

The policy is said to be deterrent to those seeking asylum in the UK, which means that the policy makers know well that the situation is so bad in Rwanda, and anyone will think twice before considering to come to the United Kingdom for fear of being sent to Rwanda.

The policy is bad for asylum seekers who are treated like cargo and can be exchanged for £120 million.

It is bad for the UK reputation as a democratic country and champion of human rights and international law. It has undermined its reputation for undermining the UN convention on refugees according to which a refugee should not be sent back to a country where his life or freedom is seriously threatened.

Done in Toulouse, on December 20, 2022

For Unified Democratic Forces, FDU-Inkingi

RWALINDA Pierre Célestin, Secretary General