Given the delay in the arrival of “illegal immigrants” expelled from Great Britain, Rwanda does business with homes intended for migrants

After a back and forth from the House of Commons to the House of Lords and several rejections and judicial interventions, on 15 April British MPs will discuss the law that Allows deport migrants arriving across the Channel to Rwandain the middle of Africa and with an authoritarian government.

But the project has had so many delays that most of the homes for exhausted migrants deported on planes, who cannot take off due to a ruling by Britain’s Supreme Court of Justice, they were sold to the local population in Rwanda.

Houses sold

When the then xenophobic British Home Secretary, Suella Braverman approved properties in KigaliShe said They were “so beautiful” that he would ask the designer for advice on his London home.

Now 70% of its properties, once intended to house asylum seekers, They are occupied and sold.

“Most of the properties in a new housing development in Rwanda intended for migrants deported from the UK have been sold to local buyers,” the ADHI-Rwanda developer said. A manager at the company in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, said they had been sold “private individuals who want to live there”, leaving room for only a few dozen migrants, if the flights ever take off.

They appeared “Sold” signs. on the manicured terraces of the Bwiza Riverside property. At the same time, the UK government faced numerous setbacks that delayed the implementation of the deportation plan. Selling homes to locals It leaves room for only a few dozen immigrants.

70% of them are no longer

Hassan Adan Hassan, general director of the project, told reporters: “We have currently sold almost 70% of the affordable housing. We have few units left. Electricity is connected to the houses. Water and fiber optics are connected to the houses. “The streets and public lighting are finished.”

The 257-unit project, priced between £14,000 and £27,000, was financed as part of a public-private partnership between the Kigali government and ADHI Corporate Group, which said it had “caught the attention of buyers and demanding investors”. .

Earlier this year, a Rwandan government source said that was the idea “integrate immigrants into Rwandan communities, Don’t create immigrant ghettos.”

Braverman, an extreme case

During her visit in March last year, when she was home secretary, Suella Braverman said Rwanda could “resettle many thousands of people” under the deal with the UK.

Braverman tweeted photos of the site and wrote: “During my trip I had the opportunity to visit supported housing projects, through our association, which people seeking refuge will call home”.

Good sales reports to Bwiza, with which it was built environmentally friendly materialswere widely shared in Rwanda, not to mention some units were reserved for British immigrants.

The Rwandan government questioned the exact proportion that had been sold privately. But he insisted that the Bwiza estate was just one of many housing estates that would be used for migrants.

Homes

Yolande Makolo, the Rwandan government’s chief spokesperson, said: “It is simply not true that 70% of homes are sold. In any case, the Bwiza Riverside estate is just one of the housing options, where migrants will live together with Rwandans. None of the assigned developments were intended to be exclusive to immigrants. The idea is to integrate immigrants into Rwandan communities, not to create immigrant ghettos.”

“Sold” signs have appeared outside several properties.

The property are sold on the free market. The most expensive houses they offer front and rear gardensoff-street parking and fiber optic broadband.

Sunak, desperate

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said that controlling illegal immigration is “more important” than being a member of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). A clear indication that he is willing to break international obligations of Great Britain a allow flights to Rwanda to take off.

The prime minister suggested that if Strasbourg blocked his attempt to deport asylum seekers, he would be prepared to promise to withdraw from the ECHR, a prospect that will delight right-wing conservatives. But it will scare moderate conservatives.

The amended law

MPs will again consider the Lords’ amendments to the Rwanda Security Bill (PDF) on 15 April. A ping pong of amendments with the Lords, who believe that the law violates human rights.

The purpose of the bill is “prevent and discourage illegal immigration, and in particular migration by routes

illegal and dangerous, allowing the expulsion of people to the Republic of Rwanda” pursuant to a controversial relocation treaty.

The House of Lords considered the bill between 18 January and 12 March. Done ten amendments in the reporting phase of March 4th and 6th. They were all defeats for the government.

The House of Commons considered the Lords’ ten amendments on 18 March and rejected them all and on 20 March. Peers approved seven amendments similar to the original ten, rejecting three.

The humanitarian amendments

The amendments are:

• Change the purpose of the invoice to include “due respect” of international law.

• declare it “Rwanda is a safe country” only if the treaty safeguards between the UK and Rwanda are fully implemented and respected, as judged by the independent treaty monitoring committee.

• Expand people’s reasons appeal expulsion decisions and allow courts to issue injunctions to prevent such deportations in limited circumstances

• Allow people to appeal decisions that they are over 18 and therefore eligible for deportation to Rwanda. Unless the decision on age was taken by municipal social workers.

• Prevent some victims of human trafficking, or those who have aided forces abroad (such as in Afghanistan), from being deported to Rwanda.

The voice of the Supreme Court

Last November, the UK Supreme Court declared this policy illegal. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hopes the new legislation, once passed, will quash legal concerns and deliver on his promise to stop people crossing the Channel in small boats.

Regaining control of Britain’s borders and ending the free movement of people was an important factor leading to the 2016 vote in favor of Great Britain will leave the European Union. Polls show it remains one of the most important issues for voters in a general election that could be held this year, probably in October.

The Sunak government announced it a series of measures to reduce the legal migration of 300,000 people and also vowed to stop people from making the dangerous 20-mile (32-kilometer) journey across the English Channel in small boats.

Under the plan, anyone who arrived in Britain illegally after 1 January 2022 would be able to do so

be sent to Rwanda, about 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) away.

An illegal policy for Justice

However, the first deportation flight in June 2022 it was blocked by European judges.

The Supreme Court then unanimously upheld the decision that the plan was illegal because the migrants risked being sent back to their home countries or to other countries, where they would be at risk of mistreatment.

Even though there have been no deportations, Britain has already paid Rwanda £240 million ($304 million). While Britain hopes to send thousands of migrants, Rwanda currently has the capacity to take in only a few houses will be missing.