MIGRANT CRISIS HAUNTS UK AS DEFIANT RISHI RESURRECTS RWANDA TREATY AMID REVOLT
By SHAMLAL PURI in London
Senior Editor – UK and Associate Publisher
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak suffered a damaging rebellion in his Cabinet on Wednesday, December 6, when the hardline Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick dramatically resigned over the resuscitated Rwanda asylum plan signed on Tuesday, December 5, saying it was not tough enough and could face fresh legal challenges.
His resignation is profoundly worrying for the Sunak Government, and critics in his party suggest it could spell the “death knell” for Sunak’s premiership.
But on December 7, Thursday morning, without wasting time, Sunak promptly replaced Jenrick by appointing not one but two ministers – Michael Tomlinson as the minister for illegal migration, while Tom Pursglove is the minister for legal migration and delivery, notwithstanding the extra costs involved. The dual appointment is probably to ensure that if one quits, the other will hold the fort.
Flexing his muscles on the thorny issue of English Channel boat crossings ferrying illegals and increased legal migration to the UK, Sunak has moved aggressively to thwart people smugglers by signing a fresh agreement with Rwanda to deport asylum seekers 4,000 miles to that landlocked eastern African country, which itself has a questionable human rights record.
The UK has already given £140 million to the Rwanda Government in a desperate bid to push the deal irrespective of the consequences and proper legal advice in the UK.
Rwandan diaspora migrants living in the UK, who fled the 1994 genocide in their country, slammed London’s move to sign the treaty with Rwanda, calling the Sunak Government out of touch with reality.
One asylum seeker from the Tutsi tribe who chose to remain anonymous says his uncle was slashed to death in their village in front of his family, and he has recurring traumatic nightmares of his beloved slain uncle’s head lying in the Skull Museum in Kigali.
“How can a country like the UK that is known for compassion on human rights throw asylum seekers in the hands of the brutal, bloodthirsty tribal criminals?”
He warned that crime and corruption were rampant in Rwanda, and it would not surprise him if these asylum seekers were mugged or even killed in the streets.
The Government is also trying to curtail legal migration by 300,000 annually. It is introducing some harsh measures which could block low-income Britons from living with their foreign-born spouses when they seek to renew their visas, sending them back to their countries– if their household does not have an income of at least £38,700 up from £18,600.
This will invite lots or protests.
This was also the week when the much-maligned Rwanda Asylum policy roared back but with a new cloak, which former Immigration Minister Jenrick criticised.
Home Secretary James Cleverly flew to Kigali earlier this week to revive the Rwanda asylum pact and signed an agreement with Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta.
The latest move consigns into the bin the previously signed in April 2022 Rwanda Asylum agreement by former Home Secretary Priti Patel, which the Supreme Court in London had rejected in a blow to the Government’s plans to slash migration.
The Supreme Court decision left the original plan in tatters, ruling Rwanda is unsafe to send asylum seekers there.
Cleverly is the third Tory Home Secretary to tackle the Rwanda debacle, the second being Suella Braverman, who was recently sacked by Sunak but who, despite being shown the door, continues to be a thorn in Sunak’s side continuing with her assault on immigration matters which is not her official forte now.
In recent months, the Sunak Government has been in choppy waters over the issue of immigration, and what observers say, if not tackled humanely and firmly, could lead to the fall of the Tory Government in the forthcoming General Elections slated for the end of next year.
The Sunak Government has been getting bricks from right-wingers in the Tory party and raising the alarm among Government supporters.
The opposition parties believe the Conservatives have failed to tackle the immigration conundrum.
There has always been a political tug-of-war in the UK’s politics on the sore subject of immigration involving leaders who have entered Downing Street in recent history.
Prime Ministers have come and gone, some achieving minute success in their fight to limit the number of migrants entering the United Kingdom but others with lesser-known achievements.
Citing recent history, people still remember the story of Uganda Asians expelled by the dictator Idi Amin in 1972 when the British Prime Minister Edward Heath of Tories was at the helm and before that, the 1968 departure of Kenyan Asian non-citizens who lost their right to do business in the face of Kenyanisation policy. They packed their bags for the UK, being British citizens.
Also fresh in the minds is the exodus of Tanzanian Asians whose businesses and second properties were nationalised by the Nyerere Government under the Arusha Declaration.
Many of these were British passport holders who turned to the UK for resettlement.
Their stories are well documented, but the resentment from the governments in power at that time showed that they were unwanted.
The Government was then under the control of Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson, who was forced to decide on the fate of Tanzanian and Kenyan exoduses of people with British Overseas Citizenship papers.
Leicester Council is well known for taking advertisements in the Uganda Argus, discouraging those expelled from coming to Leicester for settlement.
The native British population is unhappy about the unchecked migration of foreigners whose presence in the UK they resent.
The ruling Tory Party has been trying hard to appease the growing number of disenchanted voters who believe that the Government has failed miserably to block migration.
Unfazed by previous failures to slash migration, on Monday, December 4, Home Secretary Cleverly presented in the House of Commons his version of the Tory Party’s latest instalment in its continuing battle against what is now turning out to be a losing battle.
In a fresh bid to curb record levels of migration to the UK, Cleverly announced what are seen as significant changes to the Immigration rules scheduled to be introduced in the Spring of 2024.
The Government is trying to crack down on cut-price labour from abroad, mainly Commonwealth nations such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the African Commonwealth nations.
These measures are to curb record levels of migration to the UK, with the intended changes leading to “the biggest clampdown on UK migration ever” and “to crack down on cut-price labour from overseas”, according to the Home Office.
The thrust here is not on those entering the UK by boats but on legal migration, which the Government wishes to cut by at least 300,000.
Its view is that by making it harder to recruit from overseas, “the Government is prioritising growing our domestic workforce”.
The proposed changes include increasing the minimum salary of skilled workers from the current £26,200 to £38,700.
Individuals wishing to sponsor family to join them in the UK will have the minimum threshold increased from £18,600 to £38,700. This strategy is gathering a storm of protest from many quarters.
Review of the Shortage Occupation List and the scrapping of the 20% discount.
The review of the Post Study Work Visa and potentially abolishing it. This is the scheme under which graduates could enter the country.
The Government plans to clamp on care workers who cannot sponsor their dependents.
These changes are on top of a plethora of other changes that have come in or are due to come in.
From January 1 2024, Students will no longer be able to sponsor dependents (unless they are studying for a PhD). The Home Office fees for visas increase on October 4 2024, and painfully, the Immigration Health Surcharge is due to rise on January 16 2024, from £624 per year to £1035 per year.
The dreadful move to raise the threshold for those wishing to sponsor family to join the m in the UK has ironical connotations.
It means UK citizens cannot marry foreign wives unless they are affluent.
But Government critics can see the irony: if turned into legislation, it will affect Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, who are among senior MPs with foreign-born spouses.
However, the new law could apply to Brits to see their foreign-born partners leave the country if their household does not earn £38,700. Most low-income earners will be hit.
In the case of senior Tory MPs and billionaire Mr Sunak, the added charges are small change.
One does not forget that the Conservatives are a Party of millionaires.
Rwanda pact or no Rwanda pact, unfazed asylum seekers continue to take boats to British shores, and their traffickers continue to rake in money from these people seeking a new life in the UK.
Speaking on GB News, former British EU politician Michael Heaver revealed that migrant boats are still coming at an alarming rate daily.
He cited that on November 29, 64 people crossed from France to England on a single boat. The following day, he revealed, 224 people crossed on four boats. On December 1, 93 people arrived in England in two boats.
Alarmingly, on December 2, a total of 519 crossed on eleven boats in just a single day and as soon as last Sunday, December 3, another 118 people came in two ships.
People traffickers and asylum seekers are convinced that the cash-strapped UK can only guard certain parts of the British shores. They may well land in unpoliced parts and continue to risk their lives.
The traffickers, who are getting more dexterous, will increase their prices to ferry those seeking a new life in the UK.
They are convinced the new laws will remain on the statute books and be invoked only when asylum seekers are caught.
Gullible voters will believe the Government has acted to slash immigration.
There are mixed reactions to the proposed new laws.
It is believed that the Tories, or the Conservatives, are facing a wipeout in the new election and are desperately vying for votes from Britons.
There is speculation that some ten Tory MPs will resign if Rishi Sunak defies the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) laws, which the Prime Minister has suggested he would not touch at this stage to avoid a rebellion.
The sacked former Home Secretary Suella Braverman remains defiant as she has continuously slammed Sunak over his alleged inaction on migrants. She is vociferously demanding that the UK leaves ECHR.
Her critics say that all these problems occurred under her watch and that she should now retire quietly to the back bench and concentrate on her constituency’s issues instead of shouting at housetops and letting her successor, James Cleverly, do the job to which he was appointed.
Sunak believes his aggressive move to curtail immigration would help revive his party’s fledging fortunes in the next election.
Far from it, he has appeased only a section of Tory voters, promising to “do what is necessary” to curb migration.
He has pandered to the demands of core Tory voters to control immigration. Still, he will fail miserably to lure voters from the Labour Party, who now firmly believe that the Tory Government cannot do anything right.
Observers believe Sunak’s action to curtail immigration would do little to lure voters from the opposition, particularly Labour supporters sceptical about the Conservative Party’s ability to deliver.
When asked if he would cross the floor to the Conservatives, one Labour voter milking a joke from the slapstick comedy Laurel and Hardy smiled, addressing Tories’ dismal performance, said: “Well, here’s another nice mess they’ve gotten us into!”.
The public is incensed about the spouse rule on the drawing board. There is bound to be a backlash that only the affluent with a household income of £38,700 can sponsor a visa for their spouse, partner or other dependent. This is the average salary for a full-time worker but more than the earnings of three-quarters of the British population.
Critics find it morally wrong and, if not inhuman, that only the stinking rich can fall in love, marry someone, and bring them to the UK from abroad.
There are no doubt harsh consequences for the Conservative Government if they proceed with this much-maligned rule. They would also be against the human rights of British citizens who are not affluent enough to afford the increased threshold of £38,700. There is also a danger of creating divisions and resentment in society.
Immigration remains an unresolved issue with the Sunak Government. They must tread very carefully; otherwise, the Tories risk going into oblivion and losing the next election.
As for Rishi Sunak, there are already demands that he step down as his rating is steadily sliding down, and one poll suggested that even the much-maligned Liz Truss, who was the Premier for 44 days, is more popular than him.
Silas Mwaudasheni Nande