Home secretary Priti Patel, has today spoken at a press conference alongside Rwanda’s foreign minister Vincent Biruta, outlining the new partnership for resettling asylum seekers.
Patel said the deal had been nine months in the making, and that anyone resettled in Rwanda will be supported with accommodation, training and healthcare for up to five years.
When asked whether any processing facilities facing issues, such as suicide of the people staying there, Patel said that both governments were “absolutely committed to changing some of the norms around the broken global migration system”.
She said, the deal was a “partnership,” implying a shared responsibility for the program.
Biruta said new infrastructure will be invested in to deal with the program, and highlighted that Rwanda already hosts 130,00 refugees, and many people within the country are familiar with displacement.
“You could be indifferent to the problem”, he said, “or you can try new solutions.”
“Putting evil people smugglers out of business is a moral imperative. It requires us to use every tool at our disposal, and also to find new solutions. That is why today’s Migration and Economic Development Partnership with Rwanda is a major milestone.”
Patel said that 80 million people are displaced worldwide, and that people are displaced around the world.
“Criminals and people smugglers are exploiting them, giving them false promises about how they can settle in the UK.”
he people smuggling system is unfair, because it means people who can pay people smugglers get priority over people who cannot,” she said, praising today’s plans as the largest overhaul on the matter for decades.
Labour leader Keir Starmer has since slammed the plans as “unworkable”, telling the BBC: “I think we need to see these plans for what they are. It is a desperate announcement by a prime minister who just wants to distract from his own law breaking.”
He went on: “They are unworkable, they’re extortionate, they’re going to cost taxpayers billions of pounds, and they just reflect a prime minister who’s got no grip, no answers to the questions that need answering and no shame. And I just think Britain deserves better than this.”
