4 lessons for Trump from the failed Rwanda Migrant Deportation Deal of the UK

On Sunday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Rwanda said that his country was at ‘early stage’ talks with the Trump government about one deal to hire migrants deported from the United States.

That news had a well-known ring in Great Britain, where the former government in 2022 agreed with a deal to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda in 2022, and then spent two years and hundreds of millions of pounds Try – largely fruitless – to make the plan happen.

When the highest court of Great Britain ruled that the proposal has violated human rights legislation, the conservative government tried to use new legislation to ignore the judgment. But in the end the policy turned out to be an almost complete failure and the new Labor government, which was chosen last year, with reference to its enormous costs and unimaginability.

Here are some lessons The British debacle Can hold for the Trump government.

It can be expensive.

The British government spent 715 million pounds, around $ 955 million, on the plan, which she claimed would deter illegal migration.

In addition to £ 290 million that was paid directly to the Rwandan government, millions more the preparatory deportation flights, preparing detention centers and IT systems and paying for personnel and legal costs. But in the end only four migrants were sent to Rwanda – and they voluntarily went and got £ 3,000 each to do this.

Official documents show that the figures were a small fraction of what would have been spent if the deal had been fully performed. The British government had agreed to pay Rwanda £ 150,000 for each deported person, an amount that would pay for a five -year “integration package” of accommodation, food, medical services and education.

After the deal had been canceled, Rwanda said it would not pay No money back because there was no reimbursement clause.

Yvette Cooper, the Minister of Labor Home, said that the conservatives were ultimately planning to spend More than £ 10 billion About the Rwanda policy over a period of six years.

The conservatives argued that the costs were worth it, because fewer people would try to come to Great Britain on small boats if they feared that they would be sent to Rwanda.

Rwanda probably cannot take large numbers of deportees.

The Central African country is only about 10,000 square miles, about the same as Massachusetts.

The Trump government has not announced how many people he might want to send to Rwanda, which is already one of the world’s most densely populated countries.

During a hearing of the British Supreme Court in 2023, a lawyer who represents the government acknowledged that the number of asylum seekers who could take Rwanda was “initially low” and a need for “capacity building” in the country.

At the time, British news items suggested that a maximum of 1,000 people could have been transferred from Great Britain to Rwanda for more than five years. In 2022, the year that the deal was closed, at least 45,000 people arrived in Great Britain on small boats.

Migrants disappeared to Rwanda under an Israeli deal.

Every agreement with Washington would be the latter in a series of migration agreements that were beaten by Rwanda. The African nation has already housed hundreds of African refugees from Libya who are awaiting resettlement under A deal agreed six years ago With the Refugee Agency of the United Nations and the African Union.

The British treaty was never fully tested before it was demolished. But A mysterious agreement signed with Israel In 2013, five years were operated before he was ruled illegally by the Israeli Supreme Court. Details of that agreement were discussed during the judicial battle in Great Britain.

Under the Israeli deal, Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers who had sought refuge in Israel were deported to Rwanda with “explicit companies” that they would consider their claims and “would” enjoy “human rights and liberties”, according to documents that were provided during the hearings of the British High Test.

But the British judges discovered that Rwanda had not met those guarantees and that asylum seekers were deported by Israel “routine clandestien to Uganda” by being driven to the border or being put on flights.

The Rwandan government did not immediately respond to requests for comments for this article.

There can be legal challenges.

The Trump government has already shown the willingness to defy the courts, since it has so far refused to meet orders to return at least Two men wrongly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador.

But in the case of Great Britain, the fact that the plan would have breached has several domestic laws that enforce human rights, as well as the United Nations Refugee Convention, contributed to the final failure of the plan. According to the conditions of the deal, Rwanda had to take migrants without papers and process their asylum applications. Even if the migrants were later found to be eligible for the refugee status, they were expected to resettle in Rwanda and never return to Great Britain.

The British Supreme Court ruled in November 2023 that the plan was illegal because of the risk that real refugees could be sent back to the countries they had fled, which endangers their safety.

Abdi Latif Dahir contributed reporting.