On his first day as British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer rejects the plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda

The plan to move asylum seekers to Rwanda was “dead and buried before it even began”, declared Keir Starmer as soon as he took office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

• In his first press conference as British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer puts an end to the plan to transfer asylum seekers to Rwanda.
• The measure had become a flag of the various conservative governments that followed over time, but had faced major political and legal controversies.
• Although not a single flight has ever taken off, the cost to British taxpayers is estimated at over €360 million so far.

After months of fiery debates inside and outside Parliament, legal battles, appeals from non-governmental organizations and costs which in the meantime increased without changing anything, The UK plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda it won't be done. He announced it Keir Starmer, during his first press conference as British Prime Minister.

The plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda

Initially introduced by Boris Johnson during his term in office, the project envisaged - on the basis of an economic agreement signed with the Kigali government - of send asylum seekers arriving in British territory to Rwanda, regardless of their country of origin.And regardless of the reasons that had driven them to emigrate:reasons that would have been examined directly in Rwanda, closing the doors to any possibility of reception in the United Kingdom.

The “Rwanda plan” was intended to be a deterrent towards the thousands of people - 120 thousand since 2018, of which over 13 thousand in the first half of 2024 - who cross the English Channel aboard small, unsafe boats, to seek better life opportunities in the UK.Non-governmental organizations immediately strongly contested it because, in their opinion, it contradicted the United Kingdom's obligations under the international law and of Geneva Convention of 1951 on refugees.

The process of the law was extremely troubled, both in Parliament - Where the OK, far from a given, only arrived on April 22nd – both in the courtrooms, with the contrary rulings by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and of Supreme Court.But the various conservative executives that followed one another over time – led first by Boris Johnson, then from Liz Truss And Rishi Sunak – they had now made it their flag.

The "no" of the new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer

With the early general elections on 4 July, everything has changed in the UK.Because, after fourteen consecutive years in power, i conservatives achieved their worst result since 1832, with just 120 seats against 412 in the Labor Party.

“Change starts now,” promised the new prime minister Keir Starmer, a former lawyer who has worked extensively in the field of human rights.And he wanted to demonstrate this already during his first press conference after entering number 10 Downing Street, decreeing the end of the plan to transfer asylum seekers to Rwanda.“It was dead and gone before it even began”, he declared.The Rwanda plan – he added – would have been there anyway ineffective also as a deterrent, because it was only applicable to 1 percent of people arriving on board small boats.

Even the new Labor government, in its election poster, he promised to address the immigration emergency, but rather going in search of criminal organizations who manage the routes.What remains to be paid by the British taxpayers is the account to pay, estimated so far at over 360 million euros, despite not even a direct flight to the African country having ever taken off.