The political scene in the United Kingdom witnessed a major opposition campaign against the so-called “Rwanda deal”, announced by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson regarding the deportation of asylum seekers to Britain to the eastern African country of Rwanda pending a decision on their asylum application.
The opposition included nearly 160 British human rights and charities, in addition to the opposition of a number of parliamentarians, politicians and clerics to this deal, which everyone agreed that it might affect the political fate of the British Prime Minister and the ruling Conservative Party in the coming period.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees also issued a statement in which it strongly opposes this deal, and the United Kingdom seeks with this deal to prevent migrants heading to its territory illegally through the English Channel, after the increase in sea crossings in boats illegally for refugees to reach British territory.
The announcement of this deal comes at a time when the British government is receiving Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian occupation of their lands, and that comes according to an urgent governmental plan to absorb a large number of Ukrainian refugees.
The Rwanda deal comes at a time when the British authorities are seeking to stop illegal immigration by boat in the English Channel to reach British territory, after the numbers recorded an unprecedented increase, three times double in compare to the numbers a year ago, and according to the latest official statistics of the number of refugees across the English channel.
Nearly 30,000 people recorded crossed the Channel during the past year alone, 2021, while 10,000 people crossed the English Channel during 2020, and in 2019 nearly 5,000 people crossed the English Channel to reach the United Kingdom to seek asylum, and according to statistics this month (April), 5,000 people arrived and across the English Channel, and the British newspaper The Independent indicated that about a thousand refugees had arrived in Britain on small boats since the Rwanda deal was announced, days ago, as 562 people arrived on 14 boats on the first day of the announcement of the deal, and the rest of the immigrants arrived in the days that followed
