The British government is planning to pay asylum seekers up to 3,000 pounds ($3,836) each to move to Rwanda under a voluntary plan to help clear the backlog of refugees who have had their applications to remain in the country rejected.
The new agreement with Rwanda is separate from the government’s stalled plan to forcibly deport most asylum seekers to the East African country, which was last year ruled unlawful by the UK’s Supreme Court, Reuters reported.
There are tens of thousands of asylum seekers in Britain who have been refused asylum, but they cannot be removed because the government is not allowed to return people to a war-torn country or one with a poor human rights record.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has invested huge amounts of political capital in a promise to stop the arrival of asylum seekers who arrive without permission on England’s southern coast in small, inflatable boats.
Under that plan, the government wants to send thousands of people to Rwanda, but the Supreme Court ruled last year the policy was unlawful as it would violate British and international human rights laws.
