Rwanda's transnational repression under the spotlight, as UK deportation blocked by EU court
A last minute intervention by the European Court of Human Rights blocked the British government from sending a plane carrying failed asylum seekers to Rwanda. Amid the contraversial migrant deal signed between London and Kigali, a recent report published by the Washington-based think-tank Freedom House, has called out Rwanda as one of the worst perpetrators of transnational repression.
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On Tuesday, last-ditch court appeals hoping to stop the deportation of asylum-seekers in the UK to Rwanda were denied, giving the British government the green light to go ahead with the expulsions.
However, the European Court of Human Rights blocked the flight from taking off, to the ire of the British government.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has instisted that he will press ahead with the contraversial explusions, despite the last minute cancelation of the flight.
Rights groups and campaigners have slammed the deal €120 million migrant deal between Kigali and London that was signed in April, with Human Rights Watch underlining that there are "serious human rights abuses" in Rwanda, including curbs on free speech, arbitrary detention, ill-treatment and torture.
Iranian asylum seeker fears being harmed by the regime if deported to Rwanda in new UK scheme. Rwanda is not a safe place for people in exile and both it and Iran are perpetrators of #transnationalrepression as we @freedomhouse recently found. https://t.co/eDW33naT3U
— Yana Gorokhovskaia (@gorokhovskaia) June 11, 2022
Exiles and dissidents
In a recent report from the Freedom House think-tank in Washington DC, Rwanda has been singled out as one of the worst perpetrators of transnational repression, that raises further questions about the British govenment's deal with the Kagame régime.
Speaking to RFI, Yana Gorokhovskaia, who co-authored the report, gave her assessment of the migrant deal, underlining that it's a misnomer to believe that once asylum seekers leave their repressive state that they have found safety.
"Transnational repression, which is when governments reach across borders to target their exiles and dissidents demonstrates that people in fact, are not safe, just because they have left the territory of their former state," says Gorokhovskaia.
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"So migration management, like this UK-Rwanda deal, does not account for the possibility that people may experience continued repression outside their home country," she adds.
One Iranian asylum seeker - an ex-police commander who has been held at a detention centre since arriving in the UK in May - has said he fears being killed by Iranian agents in Rwanda.
According to the report entitled "Defending Democracy in Exile": “As long as democracies work to divert asylum seekers to more dangerous third countries, dissidents, activists and members of targeted ethnic or religious groups will remain extremely vulnerable to transnational repression”.
Yet the European Union has already set a precedent after striking deals with Turkey and Libya in an attempt to stem the flow of migrants into the EU.
By throwing money at the migrant problem, European powers have exacerbated the horrific conditions migrants find themselves in, leading to human trafficking and even slavery.
Read the new @freedomhouse report on the issue, and recommendations for how governments, tech companies, and civil society can respond: https://t.co/EGdEgQmO3k
— Isabel Linzer (@isabelalinzer) June 7, 2022
Outsourcing of ethical responsibility
"Turkey is another country that practices transnational repression, but also a country where a lot of transnational repression happens, which is committed by other states," Gorokhovskaia says.
But despite the outcry against the UK-Rwanda deal, it would appear that the outsourcing of ethical responsibility by democratic states is becoming the new normal.
"The idea that people should be allowed to make the claim for asylum and that they should be allowed to make the case of the kind of repression and violence they're experiencing in a safe country ... is definitely losing ground.
"Countries are thinking about other ways to manage migration," the author tells RFI, adding that states are cherry-picking who they want to help.
"[States] only want to help the human rights defenders, or 'the best of the best'," she says.
"The problem with outsourcing migration and outsourcing asylum is that you don't know who it is that you're helping because you're not allowing them to make the claim for asylum on your territory," Gorokhovskaia concludes, as is the case with the UK's deportation agreement.
Yet despite concerns about the migrants' treatment in Rwanda - the most densely populated country in Africa - Britain's Home Secretary Priti Patel stressed that ”preparation for the next flight begins now” despite the legal rulings.
She said in a statement: "We will not be deterred."
Full Interview: Transnational repression under the spotlight - Yana Gorokhovskaia
Yana Gorokhovskaia is a researcher with the Washington-based think-tank Freedom House
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