The United Kingdom is expected to begin flying asylum seekers to Rwanda today as part of a new immigration policy widely decried by religious leaders and human rights groups. The U.K. plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda who have crossed the English Channel into Britain, regardless of where they came from originally. Leaders in the Church of England have condemned what they described as an “immoral policy that shames Britain.” On Monday, Filippo Grandi, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, also criticized the plan.
Filippo Grandi: “The precedent that this creates is catastrophic for a concept that needs to be shared like asylum. … We believe that this is all wrong. This is all wrong, this deal, for so many different reasons, and I can enumerate a few.”