Rwanda has been caught in the eye of a British political storm and its officials are not happy with how the country has been portrayed. It was preparing to welcome asylum seekers on the 14th of this month until a dramatic 11th-hour ruling by the European court of human rights changed everything.
Government officials in Rwanda are now accusing campaigners of prejudice. They are saying the country’s record of human rights challenges is a thing of the past. The inaugural flight of this scheme to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda was stopped on the 14th of this month at the eleventh hour, after an intervention by the European Court of Human Rights.
The UK government insisted the program was aimed at disrupting people-smuggling networks and deterring migrants from making the dangerous sea journey across the Channel to England from France.
Advocacy groups had initiated multiple legal challenges to stop the aircraft and on the evening that the plane was expected to depart, the European Court of Human Rights issued a series of rulings ordering the British government not to remove the asylum seekers. And the UK Home Secretary has said that her office will continue with this policy in spite of this ruling.
