No to offshoring! Stop Government plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

No to offshoring! Stop Government plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Started
14 April 2022
Signatures: 194,242Next Goal: 200,000
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Why this petition matters

Started by Ben Smoke

No to offshoring! Stop Government plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

The Government have announced plans to send those who cross the channel seeking refuge and asylum 4,500 miles away to Rwanda for 'processing'. 

Those making the perilous journey across the channel will be taken to an RAF base in Yorkshire before being flown to Rwanda, where they will be sent to asylum camps and resettled there.  It’s going to cost £120 million to do.

The Government’s plan to offshore asylum processing for those who have fled war, violence, famine and persecution is inhumane and cruel. It is an extraordinary dereliction of our duty and our legal obligations - washing our hands of some of those most in need at huge expense. 

This plan violates the principle of the UN convention ( of which the UK was a founding signatory) which states that we must “grant people a fair hearing on UK soil”.*

In Australia, they have run a similar scheme of sending refugees to camps overseas, and it is reported to have led to people experiencing “rampant abuse” as well as “rape, murder and suicide.” How have our government not learned the lessons from this?*

To add to this, Rwanda, as Amnesty International has pointed out, has an abysmal record on Human Rights and as recently as last year a Rwandan national was granted asylum in the UK after they fled persecution there. In 2018, Rwandan National Police shot and killed Congolese refugees protesting mistreatment and poor conditions. They arrested a further 60. 

This horrific plan will only cause further suffering and torture to refugees and asylum seekers. It cannot be allowed to go ahead. 

We call on the Government to stop this disastrous plan, to say no to offshoring and to cancel the deal.

Please help by signing the petition now. 


* Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council on the Today programme, 14th April 2022
* Tim Naor Hilton, chief executive of Refugee Action speaking to the Guardian

 

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Signatures: 194,242Next Goal: 200,000
Support now
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