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.

No, they won’t. They abandoned Australia pretty soon after the offshore processing started.

Do you think the lack of affordable and/or social housing is down to asylum seekers?

Or is down to right to buy (tory policy), increase in private landlords, lack of affordable home building, lack of investment in social housing, cost of rent, no fault evictions, cost of living crisis?

I'm looking forward to the reaction when Ireland demands we accept asylum seekers back. The "France must take them" brigade aren't likely to welcome being the ones expected to "take them back."

What happens if we refuse to take them back?

Ok so we’ll have two forms of entry? The limited, efficient safe routes and people traffickers via the Channel?

It could be very high with that in place, is there a point where it feels too high?

So we can’t afford to house them but we can afford the cost of planes, accommodation centres, staff to process it in Rwanda?

Do the people in favour of the Rwanda plan think that it's good value for money?

A petty part of me thinks the countries hosting English 'ex-pats' 🙄 should send them back to England.

Rwanda’s human rights record is highly questionable. A 2022 US State Depart­ment report on human rights in the coun­try found “cred­ible reports of unlaw­ful or arbit­rary killings; tor­ture or cruel, inhu­man, or degrad­ing treat­ment or pun­ish­ment by the gov­ern­ment; harsh and life-threat­en­ing prison con­di­tions”.
Also, the UK Supreme Court ruled last year that it would not be safe to send asylum seekers there (because of the risk they would be sent back to countries where they would be unsafe).
1 million people were killed in a genocide in Rwanda in 1994 and apparently the country is currently in conflict with Congo. That doesn’t make it sound very safe so, frankly, it does seem “awful” to send people there.

The people traffickers will be far less as people will have far safer routes to claim asylum. My point was that there is no law or process in the world that can't be circumvented. Criminals are very canny!

What do you mean by this? Honestly

Not one person who is against this idea has given any viable alternative.

I am not completely in favour of it, because it feels like a drop in the ocean with the high costs and low numbers they can accommodate but if it works as a deterrent then it can only be a good thing.

Basically something needs to be done urgently as this cannot continue.

That any of us could have been in that situation had we been born in a different place. There but for the grace of God go I.

They likely won’t have far fewer people because limited safe routes wouldn’t get close to meeting demand, so you are right traffickers will still have their hugely profitable and growing business

On your other point though as pp posted criminals find Aus system pretty difficult. But Aus has taken a hardline approach, it does work if stopping criminals is the aim.

This.

It’s absolutely shameful.

Well perhaps. When we consider how Australia or America were colonised ( and the horrific and degrading treatment of indigenous peoples ) I am not sure that those countries were able to exercise any control of their borders. And of they had the UK wouldn't be as rich as it is now.
Invasions have always happened. Lesser migration has always happened. Border control as we know it is relatively recent . And it just doesn't seem fit for purpose right now either.
Whatever the answer is what is happening right now in the UK doesn't look like it.

Human migration causes a lot of conflict and war in the past. Indo-Europeans almost completely replaced the native European farmers; migration of Sea Peoples caused the collapse of Bronze Age civilisation; Central Asia never recovered from the migration of various Mongolian tribes; the native Khoisan peoples never really recovered from Bantu migrations; I think we can all understand what happened to the native population of the Americas ….

Migration is a destructive force, historically

Not really. Your ancestors pass down a country; nobody is handed a peaceful society. It must be built, maintained and social values passed down to the next generations. It isn’t just plucked from the ground.

Whether migration is a destructive force or not it is here to stay. It will increase and intensify in the coming decades.
Perhaps we should follow Trump's line of reasoning and build a wall, or sea wall. Shoot people from the cliffs.
We need proper grown ups having a proper adult discussion on managing asylum and economic migration. That recognises all people as human beings, equally whether they were born here or not . We just don't have that , and until we have a change of government we never will.

I think it's a great idea. The project looks fantastic and the accommodation looks beautiful. I'm hoping they open the scheme up to volunteers from the uk. It would be a fantastic project, for young people to be involved in.

Perhaps the birth rates would increase if we actually prioritised the people already living here

I don't think Rwanda is the answer but there are too many people wanting to come to the UK

Maintaining strong borders is not a problem. It can be done with enough political will. It is not enough to have physical barriers; you also have to make tough decisions and follow through.

Well, any of us could have been born Bill Gates or Cleopatra but we weren’t. Life isn’t fair. And subsidising people smugglers to feel better about ourselves really isn’t the answer.

This. 100%. Sweden is just finding this out now.

I think the Rwanda deal is a waste of money however, I do believe we need to protect our borders. This country is a mess, NHS, housing etc. If its failing our own people, how can we help people abroad?

I also feel birth rates would increase if people were rewarded, not punished for having children. I have a DD who is draining me of money due to childcare costs etc.