The British government has agreed a new deportation deal with Rwanda. The contract is intended to circumvent a Supreme Court ruling. Stricter rules for skilled workers are also planned.
Great Britain wants to seal itself off from migrants with significantly stricter hurdles for foreign skilled workers and a new asylum pact for deportations to Rwanda. British Home Secretary James Cleverly and Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta signed the agreement in the Rwandan capital Kigali, both governments announced.
The agreement stipulates that asylum seekers who enter Britain irregularly will be sent to the East African country. In return, Rwanda has received an initial payment of around 163 million euros (£140 million) and a promise that further money will be made available to accommodate and care for the deportees. The Conservative government wants to use the agreement to circumvent a ruling by the UK’s highest court.
The Supreme Court ruled last month that an earlier treaty violated international human rights law. The new agreement is now intended to provide assurances from the authoritarian Rwandan leadership that it will not deport asylum seekers to their homeland – and thus eliminate concerns. If Rwanda wants to expel a migrant, for example because of a crime, British and Rwandan judges should decide together whether the person should stay or be brought back to Great Britain.
Rwanda should become a safe third country
Next, the British Parliament should declare Rwanda a safe third country. Observers are concerned that British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak could leave the European Convention on Human Rights to avoid legal resistance from Strasbourg. The right wing of the Tories is loudly pressuring Sunak to significantly reduce net immigration from 745,000 people.
The court had not classified Rwanda as a safe third country: it therefore viewed the agreement as incompatible with Britain’s international obligations, as it was possible that Rwanda could deport people to regions where they would be at risk of persecution.
The government emphasizes that it wants to fly out the first asylum seekers before the next election. The date has not yet been set, but speculation is about May or October 2024. It is still unclear whether a plane with deported people will ever take off to Rwanda. Even Interior Minister Cleverly didn’t want to commit to a specific date.
Skilled workers need higher salaries
The measures that Cleverly announced in Parliament on Monday are likely to have a much greater impact. In the future, foreign skilled workers will have to receive an annual salary of at least 38,700 pounds (45,150 euros) instead of the previous 26,200 pounds in order to be allowed to come into the country. Nursing staff are exempt, but just like students are no longer allowed to bring their relatives with them.
Cleverly announced the biggest fall in net migration in recent British history. He expects the bottom line to be around 300,000 fewer immigrants. “Enough is enough,” wrote Prime Minister Sunak in an op-ed for the Sun newspaper. There was also approval from the Tory right wing. Hardliners such as former Interior Minister Suella Braverman immediately called for even stricter measures.
Experts view the plans critically. “The signal is: We don’t want you,” said an EU diplomat. The economy expects the shortage of skilled workers to continue to increase. “Once again, the interests of business are losing out to the internal affairs of the Conservative Party,” said the head of the recruitment association REC, Neil Carberry, to the newspaper “Financial Times”.