‘Want Asylum? We’ll Ship You Elsewhere’

An anti-immigrant sentiment was central to the movement behind the Brexit wave that Johnson surfed on into power. Then, in April, U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel (the daughter of immigrants) announced that “those who travel to the U.K. through dangerous and illegal routes, including small boats across the channel, may be relocated to Rwanda, where they will have their asylum complaints considered.” Johnson went on to claim that the policy was created as a deterrent against both illegal immigration and human trafficking.

Michela Wrong, author of “Do Not Disturb, ” a book about Rwanda’s current human rights abuses, describes Rwanda as a “shockingly unsuitable place to send refugees.” She tells OZY: “Rwanda is one of the most repressive countries in Africa. As we speak, 16 opposition activists are in prison.” She’s hardly the only one to hold those views. Former U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May stood up in parliament to say that she did not support the Rwanda policy on the grounds of “legality, practicality and efficacy.” And Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby stated that the principle of the Rwanda policy “must stand the judgment of God, and it cannot.”

Johnson has claimed that Rwanda is “one of the safest countries in the world.” Wrong admits that it is “a neat, clean and tidy police state which may score well on various development indices.” But “it scores extremely badly” on human rights, including through its military interventions in neighboring Congo. Rwanda already has around 130,000 refugees, mostly from Congo and Burundi, who live in basic tented camps. Rita French, the U.K.'s global ambassador for human rights, stated in 2021 that Rwanda had declined to “conduct transparent, credible and independent investigations into allegations of human rights violations.”

But none of that has dimmed the allure of Rwanda as a rare country willing to take in refugees and asylum seekers for other nations. It comes at a cost — the U.K., for instance, has already paid $150 million — that some countries seem willing to pay. Between 2014 and 2017, Israel deported around 4,000 people — mainly Eritreans and Sudanese — to Rwanda and Uganda under a “voluntary departure” program. Gillian Triggs, an assistant secretary-general at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), describes Israel’s policy as an “ignominious failure,” as many refugees have since left the East African nations. Meanwhile, Denmark, which is exempt from the European Union's asylum standards, had recent discussions with Rwanda to set up an arrangement similar to that of the U.K.

Under EU regulations, external refugee centers are not legal (though a change to this policy was discussed between 2016-18, amid a spike in Syrian refugees arriving via the Mediterranean Sea). However, the EU has helped to construct a “closed controlled” facility on the Greek island of Samos, close to the Turkish mainland. This facility can hold up to 3,000 people and, according to Amnesty International, “is equipped with a rigid system of containment and surveillance.” Greek authorities have also regularly been accused of forcefully pushing incoming refugees back into Turkey.

Bangladesh’s government has moved about 20,000 Rohingya refugees, who fled Myanmar, to Bhasan Char — a remote island in the Bay of Bengal susceptible to cyclones and flooding. As Zaw Win of Fortify Rights says: “Thousands of Rohingya refugees are confined to the island and not granted permission to leave. They lack freedom of movement, access to quality health care and livelihoods.” The Bangladeshi government plans to move an additional 80,000 refugees to the environmentally unstable island in order to alleviate refugee camps on the mainland. Bangladesh, which altogether hosts around 900,000 Rohingya refugees, hopes to ultimately send them back to Myanmar.

Australia has had one of the most controversial refugee processing policies in the world. Its “Pacific Solution” aims to discourage refugees from undertaking journeys by sea and to prevent trafficking — by taking refugees to detention centers on the islands of Nauru and Manus Island, while their asylum applications are reviewed. In 2013, the government took a hardline stance, stating that those arriving by boat should hold no hopes of ever settling in Australia as refugees.

In 2016, the leak of over 8,000 pages documenting abuses at the Nauru detention center led to reports in The Guardian that revealed incidents of assaults, sexual and child abuse. Journalist Michael Gordon, who visited the Nauru detention center in 2005 and interviewed several detainees, stated that a “sense of despair permeated every aspect of existence of the residents.” In 2021, Australia announced that it had signed a new agreement with Nauru for the offshore processing of asylum seekers. However, the actual details of this agreement went undisclosed.

A Kurdish Iranian man held on Manus for four years, Boochani had fled Iran after the authorities targeted him because of his advocacy for Kurdish independence. He was rescued from an unseaworthy boat in the Pacific and flown to Manus. There he became known as the “Voice of Manus Island.” His memoir “No Friend but the Mountains ” became a bestseller. In 2020, Boochani was granted refugee status by New Zealand.

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According to the UN, South Africa has over 250,000 refugees and asylum seekers. But this does not include the 180,000 Zimbabwean refugees who hold a work permit known as the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP). Nor does it account for the millions of other undocumented refugees who have made it across South Africa’s porous border. The good news is that, according to the South African constitution, a refugee “enjoys full legal protection in the country … and the right to remain in South Africa.” The reality, however, is less welcoming.

Despite its liberal constitution, South Africa and its government are suffering from so-called “asylum fatigue.” As Callixte Kavuro of the Department of Public Law at Stellenbosch University points out, the government is currently making amendments to the law “to make it difficult, if not impossible, for individuals escaping persecution and seeking asylum.” Also, the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit will be withdrawn in December 2023, thereby ending legal status for Zimbabweans who have lived and worked legally in South Africa for over a decade.

Refugees in South Africa have often also encountered violence of an apparently xenophobic nature. In 2008, a spate of these attacks left 62 persons dead. Attacks in 2019 saw 18 deaths and immigrant-owned businesses looted, burned and destroyed. This violence resulted in at least some Nigerians deciding to go back home. Meanwhile, a more organized anti-immigrant movement called “Operation Dudula” has recently emerged. Also, in April of this year, a Zimbabwean man was beaten and burnt to death by an anti-immigrant mob. Many see the violence as a fight for limited resources.

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