Rwanda legislation damages UK’s reputation, Labour will repeal it: Veteran politician Lord Dubs

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) - The UK government’s controversial Rwanda policy is a breach of human rights, the rule of law in Britain and the country’s international obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights, according to a member of the House of Lords.

“I thought it was wrong in principle, and I don’t think it will work in practice,” Alfred Dubs, a veteran politician from the Labour Party, told Anadolu.

“I think it's a very shabby way to treat people who fled for safety,” he said about the Safety of Rwanda Act, which declares the African country a safe place to send asylum seekers and became law last week after receiving royal assent.

The long-debated legislation paves the way for the deportation of thousands of asylum seekers in a matter of weeks.

Dubs, born in December 1932 in Prague, was one of the Czech children rescued from the Nazis in the Kindertransport, a scheme that helped European Jewish children escape to safety in Britain.

He was a member of parliament for Labour between 1979 and 1987, and in 1994 was appointed as a peer to the House of Lords, of which he has been an active and high-profile member. Over the years, he has lobbied tirelessly on behalf of refugees and asylum seekers.

Critical of the new law, Dubs believes it will damage the UK’s reputation, “because the Supreme Court held that it wasn’t safe to send people to Rwanda and this legislation overrides the wishes of the Supreme Court.”

“It also overrides the chance to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights or it limits the chance of doing that. I think our international reputation will not be improved. It will be damaged by something which goes against all our traditions,” he said.

“We can’t take everybody who wants to come to Britain for asylum, but we can surely take our shared responsibility, and that doesn’t mean having legislation which criminalizes people who come across the (English) Channel and then sending some of them away to a distant country,” he added.

- ‘Labour will repeal this legislation’

Dubs also questioned the premise of declaring Rwanda a safe country, pointing out that at least six people from the East African nation have been given asylum in the UK recently.

“In the last year or so, there are at least six people from Rwanda who claimed asylum in this country, and we have given them asylum,” he said.

“So, it seems to me very curious that the country is not safe enough for those people and we accept them as refugees from Rwanda, and yet we want to send our people there. It’s a very regrettable thing.”

He said the Labour Party will repeal the legislation if it wins the next general election.

There is no date set yet for elections, but Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said they will be held in the second part of this year.

“Our commitment as the Labour Party, if we win the election … is that we will repeal this legislation,” he said.

“We don’t think it has a sensible part to play in our policies as regards asylum seekers and refugees.”

- ‘Cruel and inhumane’

James Wilson, director of the rights group Detention Action, also criticized the new law as “cruel and inhumane.”

“We’re seriously concerned about this policy, which we believe is cruel and inhumane and fundamentally the wrong approach,” Wilson told Anadolu.

Wilson said his organization has campaigned against the plan since it was announced as a policy two years ago and “it’s difficult news that the bill has passed into law.”

“I think there’s maybe two main things to say about what happens next,” he said.

“The government has restated its intention to start flights to (Rwanda) by the middle of the summer … to remove hundreds, potentially thousands of people who’ve approached the UK seeking asylum, to Rwanda.”

He underlined that there are large numbers of people in the asylum system or in detention at various points in the immigration process in the UK “who will be fearing … being sent on a one-way ticket to a third country.”

Echoing Dubs’ view, Wilson also warned that the new legislation will tarnish the UK’s global image.

“This law poses some fundamental questions about the UK’s reputation in terms of our commitment and our upholding of international law, international principles and human rights in particular,” he said.