Rwandans seeking asylum in UK say their country is ‘unsafe’

Isaro* fled from Rwanda to the UK to escape the “degradation, discrimination and human rights abuses” she suffered because of her Hutu ancestry.

She is still waiting for her asylum application and said she fears for anyone sent to Rwanda.

Although the government insists Rwanda is safe as it presses ahead with deportation plans, I It was recently revealed that 21 Rwandans were granted asylum in the UK between April 2022 and December 2023.At least four Rwandans They were granted refugee status in the UK due to “well-founded” fears of persecution by the regime over the past six months.

Isaro said that when her husband discovered she was Hutu, he beat and raped her, a fact he claimed he did not know before the marriage. The beatings continued throughout her pregnancy, causing her to miscarry.

“I was in a dark place. I wished I could die,” she told I. “I didn’t know who to tell because the government didn’t care about the Hutus.”

During the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Hutu militias killed more than 800,000 civilians, mainly Tutsi. After the Tutsi-led Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) declared military victory, Many Hutu civilians become a refugee, criminalized or face discriminate.

Isaro felt she had no choice but to run away or die at the hands of her husband. “So in 2022, I flew to England,” the 32-year-old said.

After she left, her husband told people at the workplace that Isaro had begun following the teachings of RPF critic Kizito Mihigo. In response, she said, her family began receiving threats and harassment from authorities inquiring about Isaro’s whereabouts.

“My family is under surveillance day and night,” she said. “I kept getting death threats [from the ruling RPF] And I was told that if I didn’t go back, they would take me away by force, dead or alive.

“This is not a safe country. Not only [is it not safe] For refugees, but also for Rwandans. Things got worse. We have social problems, economic problems, and human rights are being violated every day. I wouldn’t wish this life on anyone, the life I had. “

She believes there are economic motives at the heart of Rwanda’s agreement with the UK. “I think this plan is about money,” she said. “This is just business. Everyone knows that the Rwandan government only cares about money.”

Yvette*, another Rwandan seeking asylum in the UK, said she fears every day that she may be forced to return to Rwanda if her home country is deemed a safe place to send asylum seekers.

“I know exactly what would happen if I were sent back,” the 42-year-old told I.

Yvette left Rwanda two years ago, fearing for her life and risking jail time. “I don’t feel safe,” she said. I It has been agreed not to reveal the reasons for her departure to avoid revealing her identity and any repercussions for her family.

“It makes me angry,” Yvette said of the government’s plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda, where the government will decide on their applications. “I don’t think Rwanda is safe for refugees or asylum seekers.”

The scheme, announced in April 2022, aims to tackle the increasing number of unauthorized crossings of the English Channel into the UK in small boats.

“Serious human rights violations continue to occur there [in Rwanda]including suppression of free speech, arbitrary detention, ill-treatment and torture by Rwandan authorities,” said Yasmine Ahmed, UK director at Human Rights Watch I. “Rwanda’s political space remains tightly closed, and the opposition faces regular threats and harassment.”

Ms Ahmed said Rwanda was targeting Rwandan refugees and asylum seekers around the world and threatening those living in the UK Human Rights Watch’s detailed report Regarding its extraterritorial repression.

“In the face of overwhelming evidence that Rwanda is unsafe, the UK should abandon its Rwanda plan once and for all and focus instead on repairing its own asylum system,” she said.

In November 2023, the UK Supreme Court declared the policy unlawful because the landlocked African country had a poor human rights record, serious and systemic flaws in its asylum handling and was not a safe country because it had adopted a similar policy in the UK. Where asylum seekers are deported. Israel returns asylum seekers to their countries of origin.

The Rwanda Security Bill, introduced in December, counters a verdict that is being fast-tracked through Parliament to prove that the African country is safe and that no one sent there by the British government will be forcibly deported to an unsafe country. It stipulates that Rwandans allegedly at risk there will not face deportation.

Rwanda’s security aside, the UN refugee agency remains concerned. “UNHCR considers that the UK-Rwanda asylum partnership goes against the fundamental principles of global solidarity and responsibility-sharing that underpin the international refugee protection system,” a spokesperson told reporters. I.

“It transfers responsibility for identifying and meeting international protection needs from the UK to Rwanda and is an example of the ‘externalization’ of international protection. UNHCR has been deeply concerned about the ‘externalization’ of asylum obligations and the serious risks it poses to refugee safety focus on.”

Yvette claims that everything in Rwanda is a “secret”.

“As a people, we like to show the good,” she said. “But they [outsiders] Don’t know what’s inside. “

Behind the surface, Yvette said, were human rights abuses, suppression of free speech and a lack of support services.She would be particularly concerned about sending LGBTQI+ people to Rwanda because there are already evidence Abuse and homophobic abuse. Government data shows that since April 2022, at least one decision to grant asylum to Rwanda was based on sexual orientation.

“There’s a social stigma attached to them,” she said. “If you expose yourself [your sexuality]they will create something else to arrest you – for something unrelated [to sexuality]”.

If anyone in Rwanda challenges authorities, Yvette said, they risk being reported, losing their jobs, fined or arrested, or asylum seekers’ applications could be jeopardized.

She said she would tell anyone sent to Rwanda not to ask questions or share private information with people who offer to help. “They’ll hear you and take it back [to authorities],” she says.

The justice system is ‘tricky’ court Do not distribute fair judgmentshe added.

Yvette believes that it is difficult for outsiders to assimilate into Rwandan culture due to language barriers and lack of job opportunities.

“Most people speak Kinyarwanda” — Rwanda’s national language and the first language of nearly all of the country’s population — she said. “And a large proportion of the population are out of work. There are no jobs. There are no services like the ones we get in the UK. They’re going to be sitting in hotel rooms day in and day out. It’s going to be lonely.”

She thought seeking asylum in Rwanda would be “mentally disturbing”. “It’s hard for me to be here,” she said. “But I can’t imagine them being there [in Rwanda]. This would be the worst thing for them. “

Zula* said she fled Rwanda for the UK in 2002 after being raped by soldiers and was granted discretionary leave to stay in the UK in 2018 because her daughter had turned 10. She also believed the scheme was a money-making scheme.

“The government is only about money,” the 48-year-old, who lives in a London suburb, told reporters. I. “This is a corrupt country. They are sugar-coating and saying people [who get sent to Rwanda] You can do this or that, but people [already in Rwanda] is suffering. “

She worries about potential human rights violations if asylum seekers are sent to Rwanda. “If you persist in complaining that you are being abused, you may disappear or be imprisoned,” she said.

Zula noted that discrimination is widespread and affects how asylum seekers are treated and whether they have access to services, health care and jobs.

“I would advise anyone not to go to Rwanda,” she said. “I understand the country I come from and what the government is doing. This is not a safe country.”

Imran Hussain of the Refugee Council said I The Rwanda plan was “wrong in principle and unworkable in practice.”

He said it was wrong for the UK to “start outsourcing our international obligations by sending people on one-way tickets to another asylum system, wherever that system is”.

He added: “Rwanda is a country that people are now fleeing from and the fact that Rwandan nationals have been granted refugee status in the UK is another cause for concern. “It is time for the government to admit that Rwanda’s plans are inhumane, And it won’t work.

“Instead we need a fair and compassionate approach to refugee protection, focused on providing safe routes and fair hearings for those seeking safety in the UK.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “Rwanda has a good record of supporting asylum seekers and remains a party to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention.

“It is currently home to more than 135,000 asylum seekers and anyone relocated to the country under the UK-Rwanda Treaty will receive safety, support and help to rebuild their lives there.”

*Names have been changed to protect identity