Season 7 Episode 2: The policy that never took off: Assessing UK’s Rwanda Asylum Plan

Declarations: The Human Rights Podcast

This episode focuses on assessing the Rwanda Asylum Plan - UK’s most controversial migration policy in recent years. According to the proposal, 99 asylum seekers whose claims were declared “inadmissible” were scheduled to embark on a flight relocating them to Rwanda on the 14th of June 2022. While never enacted, the plan attracted widespread media attention and the criticism of many NGOs fighting for migrants rights. Our guests, Peter Wiliam Walsh and Colin Yeo will discuss the origin of this policy, its problematic nature as well as what could be done in the future to avoid similar mistakes. In our modern society, we expect developed democracies like the United Kingdom to set a positive example when it comes to respecting human rights. So, was this just a policy accident in the UK government’s overly nationalist agenda or is this the beginning of a hostile immigration environment in post-Brexit Britain? Only time will tell.