The intense hostility to the United Kingdom’s attempt to repatriate asylum seekers in the country to Rwanda, four thousand miles away, was entirely predictable. For one thing, the British public is divided down the middle on the propriety of the plan, which stipulates that Rwanda will receive 120 million pounds upfront with further payments over the next five years to offset the “processing and resettlement of” asylum seekers deported from the UK. According to a recent poll, 44 percent of those surveyed backed the policy while 40 percent opposed it. Furthermore, charities and lawyers representing asylum seekers have raised questions as to its legality. To make matters worse, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who has held office since 2000, has been accused of human rights violations and seeking to assassinate political opponents.
While the policy remains in abeyance following an eleventh-hour ruling by the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), which effectively grounded the flight scheduled to take the first batch of deportees to the East African country, it is clear that what we are witnessing are the initial skirmishes in a legal contest that will, in all probability, continue for the foreseeable future.
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