London, Europe Brief News – The UK authorities are set to send the first group of illegal migrants to Rwanda this week.
The first people are being notified of the government’s intention to relocate them under the new migration and economic development partnership.
Home Secretary Priti Patel signed a deal in the capital Kigali in April for some asylum seekers who have arrived in the UK illegally since January to be resettled in the east African country.
UK Rwanda asylum plan sparked large condemnation from rights groups.
Plans to send some asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda are a breach of international law, the UN’s refugee agency has said.
The UNHCR said attempting to “shift responsibility” for claims of refugee status was “unacceptable”.
Gillian Triggs, an assistant secretary-general at the UNHCR, told BBC Radio 4’s the World At One programme the agency strongly condemned “outsourcing” the responsibility of considering refugee status to another country.
A former president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, she said such policies – as used in Australia – could be effective as a deterrent but there were “much more legally effective ways of achieving the same outcome”.
Australia has used offshore detention centres since 2001, with thousands of asylum seekers being transferred out of the country since then.
It has been frequently criticised by the UN and rights groups over substandard conditions at its centres and its own projections show it will spend $811.8m (£460m) on offshore processing in 2021-22.
Human Rights Watch also said that UK plan to ship asylum seekers to Rwanda is cruelty itself, accusing UK government continues to rip up its duties to asylum seekers.
