WTAF? Asylum seekers to be detained across the UK in shock Rwanda operation

[Tenmus]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/apr/28/home-office-to-detain-asylum-seekers-across-uk-in-shock-rwanda-operation

"The Home Office will launch a surprise operation to detain asylum seekers across the UK on Monday in preparation for deportation to Rwanda, weeks earlier than expected, the Guardian understands.
Officials plan to hold refugees who turn up for routine meetings at immigration service offices and will also pick people up nationwide in a two-week exercise.

They will be immediately transferred to detention centres, which have already been prepared for the operation, and held to be put on later flights to Rwanda. Others identified for these flights are already being held."

I am actually shocked by this. A cruel, inhumane action with terrible optics and a colossal waste of money.

Per head of population, most major European countries (not to mention countries bordering conflict zones) take many many more asylum seekers/refugees than the UK. And why UK? Look at colonial history and the links that were established

I'm not volunteering to host Abdul the refugee in my home for the same reason I'm not offering to host YOU. We both want and deserve to have separate households. Maybe my washing up habits would get on your nerves or vice versa, or you'd hate my dinners, or I'd be annoyed you take up too much room in the fridge. I guess Abdul is just like us and also deserves a bit of dignity, wants to get a job and pay for his own place. I'm not worried he'd nick my handbag though no, no more than I think you would.

How do you persuade them to stay in their own countries? If they are real asylum seekers they probably can't stay in their own country and if they are not genuine asylum seekers they realise that once they are here half the battle is won, virtually no one gets sent back. And if you return them to their own country (assuming they tell you where that is) what's to stop them just coming back again?

How do you plan on housing these individuals whilst their claim is being processed? What about rights to work whilst their claim is being processed? What benefits will they receive whilst their claims are being processed? Will they pay taxes whilst awaiting their claim decision? If their claims are approved or denied, do you expect them to pay back any benefits/accomodation fees, advanced loans ..etc? How will you return them to their home country?

What gives you the impression that “they all want to come to the U.K?” It’s simply not the case, the ones with friends and family in the U.K., or a smattering of English try and come to the U.K. (or Ireland). Those with relatives in France or who speak French (eg North Africans) head to France or Belgium, those with links to Germany head to Germany.

The idea that all the worlds refugees head to the U.K. and none go to any other countries is bonkers and rather suggests you’ve never set foot outside of the country. In fact the countries with the biggest refugee populations are places like Syria, Iran and Turkey. Germany has by far the largest number in Europe.

Same. I remember learning about the Nazis at school and not understanding how it was ever allowed to happen, how did the ordinary German people allow the Nazis to control their government?

I wouldn't have Bob from down the road sleeping in my house either but it doesn't mean I think he should be shipped off to Rwanda like he is a piece of rubbish. There is a huge difference between have someone living in your neighbourhood and in your spare room. I live in a very multicultural area. There are 3 mosques, two Christian churches and a Ukrainian church within a 10 minute walk. Every time I leave my house I overhear people speaking other languages. I don't have a problem with any of it.

For the 'why don't they stay in the first safe country' folks. Particularly @Bumblebeeinatree

The graph is for 2022. By 2023 Italy was talking in more than us, so we're not even in the top five countries for taking in asylum seekers.



Disgraceful.

They’ll be detained if they do turn up , if they don’t that will be the reason to arrest and deport them for breaking conditions. They can’t win either way now

Now compare that to a graph of terrorism attacks and attacks by asylum seekers in the last 24 months. Notice any similarities?

Oh it's all so embarrassing. I feel sorry for the small number of people who will have the bad luck of being put on these flights, but this is all just to give the hard-core right the Tories have decided are the only demographic who still might vote for them the boner they need to secure their support come election.

The "Britain is full" brigade might want to think about why we're granting something like 700,000 legal visas a year at the moment, rather than get upset about 30, 000 people in boats.

Get diplomatic solutions going with countries who are sending lots of illegal economic migrants (which I believe we are now doing with Albania), process claims quickly and get legimate refugees into legimate work quickly (rather than letting hundreds of Vietnamese teenagers get off trucks and disappear into underground marijuana farms, for example)

What a sordid mess this country is.

Germany is strengthening its Eastern border so refugees cannot get in so easily there. But it's Chancellor Scholz in charge now.

(Source is DW.com but can't link on app)

Probably another potemkin village, like the nightingale hospitals.

But why are they all so desperate to live in the UK rather than Europe?

Right, so you support the bill but you haven’t even bothered to find out the first thing about migration figures? Don’t have any idea how many asylum seekers and refugees Germany take in? Do you know which countries are the biggest hosts? Here’s a clue - they’re not in the EU. The UK comes nowhere near any of them.
What’re your other reasons for thinking it’s a good idea? Do you think it’ll save money? Do you know how much it’s going to cost per deportee? And what about the bit in the Rwanda Bill that says in return the UK has to accept refugees from Rwanda being settled in the UK? Mostly Congolese. You ok with that? Do you think the UK has an immigration crisis?
It doesn’t. It’s a dead cat for morons and racists.

Oh and Rwandan remains in conflict with the Congo, a fact I discovered on BBC Question Time the other week, of all places. A man said his relatives from the Congo could technically be sent to Rwanda which would be dangerous for them. The minister whose name escapes me said Rwandans are excluded from the scheme, but didn't understand that Congo and Rwanda are two different countries.

Again can't link here, sorry.

They don’t share our values
What values are those then?

This is very upsetting and I’m worried about my students who are asylum seekers.
They are trying to make a new life and get education and want to contribute. They already get moved without much notice Away from their families once they turn 18.

This is another level of cruel.
These people are humans. They are not a faceless mass who can be treated like this.

There are no legal routes.

Yet again, again, it needs to be spelled out that the UK has an incredibly small proportion of asylum claims compared to other countries in Europe. I cant believe this needs to be repeated all the time.

The trip 23 refugee hosting countries

https://www.statista.com/statistics/263423/major-refugee-hosting-countries-worldwide/

Almost 70% of refugees remain in the nest country to their own

Which is why the Rwanda Bill includes the proviso that the UK accepts and settles some of the most vulnerable refugees - most of whom will be Congolese. Because Congolese refugees won’t be safe in the ‘safe country’ that is Rwanda and Rwanda has, illegally, refused to allow them asylum. You couldn’t make it up, and with this government, you won’t have to