UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently announced that his government has agreed to a plan to deport migrants arriving in the Chagos Islands, part of the British Indian Ocean Territories, to St. Helena – a remote island in the South Atlantic.
The yet to be enforced policy is a carbon copy plan of the earlier strategy signed between Rwanda and the UK conservative party to resettle thousands of migrants that took deadly journeys to migrate to the UK. The “Rwanda plan” however never saw the light of day, having been vehemently opposed by the Labor Party and its supporters, when they still were in opposition.
Interestingly, the Rwanda Plan, which Starmer and Labor repeatedly denounced and called ‘immoral’ and ‘wrong’ now is the same plan his government is going to implement, on a whopping budget of 6,6 million pounds (UK) in return for the offshore and resettlement of more than 3000 immigrants, on the Island of St. Helena. If hypocrisy killed…
How exactly is this policy different from what they stymied, the plan that the (Boris) Johnson government had negotiated, and finalized with Kigali?
The Rwanda’s migration deal, which also was discussed and adopted at the African Union Head of States Summit, set precedence as key solution in the prevention human smuggling businesses, and that would have been a first step in the prevention of so many unnecessary deaths, of desperate people along deadly smuggling routes including harsh deserts and unforgiving seas.
The plan would have torpedoed the business models of ruthless people smuggling gangs, while providing sustainable solutions, as there were inbuilt schemes for creation of jobs, but most importantly, serving as a deterrent to would be smugglers.
But now, the UK Labor Government is floundering around, looking for solutions to a problem that by now should have been ending.
ellenkampire