Shapps can’t explain why Rwandans being given asylum in UK if country is ‘safe’

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has been unable to explain why the UK has accepted asylum seekers from Rwanda if the country is deemed safe by the Government.

i revealed on Monday that six people from Rwanda have been granted asylum in Britain since the Government signed its deportation deal with the East African nation in 2022.

Quizzed on the story by Sky News, Mr Shapps said he was not aware of the “specifics of those cases” but defended the UK’s plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

“What I do know is the UN sent people to Rwanda, and the UN do it without all the different security measures or reassurance measures we are putting in place with Rwanda,” he said.

“If it’s good enough for the UN, it’s good enough for the UK.”

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While the UN does send asylum seekers to Rwanda, the country is not their final destination, and the UN’s refugee agency has previously condemned the UK’s plans to deport asylum seekers there permanently.

Analysis of Home Office figures shows that 33 asylum applications have been lodged in the UK on behalf of 51 people from Rwanda since the deal was first announced in April 2022.

This is despite plans by the UK Government to send asylum seekers to the country as part of a £240m agreement.

It means more asylum seekers have arrived in Britain from Rwanda than vice versa since the agreement was signed. No asylum seekers in the UK have yet been sent to Rwanda.

The Government faces several crucial votes this week as it tries to see off major amendments to its Safety of Rwanda Bill, which requires UK courts to consider the country “safe”.

In November, the Supreme Court ruled the Rwanda policy unlawful, citing concerns about the safety of the nation and whether it would properly process asylum seekers.

Lord Dubs, a senior Labour peer and former child refugee who fled the Nazis, told i the latest figures were “very significant because it confirms what the Supreme Court said”, and they made “a nonsense of a bill that deems Rwanda to be safe”.

He added: “It undermines the whole logic of the thing. It makes a nonsense of the Government’s efforts to override the Supreme Court.”

Dominic Grieve, the former Tory attorney general, said: “Clearly, if we are granting asylum to individuals from Rwanda, it does call into question how Rwanda can be described as a safe country because it’s plainly not safe for those people… Simple as that.”