Rwanda needs migrants because of the genocide, says Home Secretary

Rwanda is “slightly underpopulated” because of the genocide it suffered 20 years ago and its economy will benefit from the migrants that are due to be sent from Britain, the Home Secretary has said.

James Cleverly is on a two-day visit to Italy and is due to travel on Wednesday to the island of Lampedusa, which has received hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants who cross in boats from the coast of North Africa.

The Government has the green light to start flying migrants to the central African country after the Safety of Rwanda Bill was passed by Parliament.

At an event in Rome, Mr Cleverly was asked why the Rwandan government had agreed to take asylum seekers from the UK.

He said that apart from the “transfer of funds” – the millions of pounds that Britain will give to Rwanda – the country’s economy was in need of migrant labour because of the brutal genocide it endured in 1994, when members of the Tutsi ethnic group were massacred by Hutu militias.

It is estimated that more than 800,000 people – mostly Tutsi but also moderate Hutu – were murdered during the genocide.

“For a country of a fairly modest population, it lost a very significant number of its people.

“So Rwanda – I may be a bit clunky with my phraseology – Rwanda is slightly underpopulated and there is definitely capacity for the individuals who are being relocated to Rwanda to be financially much more better off than they would be in their country of origin but also for Rwanda as a nation to be economically much more better off,” he said.

“It’s a genuine mutual benefit. The people they will be accepting into their society will help their economy grow.

“We see this as being a three-way benefit. It helps the UK manage a real challenge with regards to criminally facilitated illegal immigration, it helps the individuals who are seeking a safe and prosperous life to have a safe and prosperous life, and it helps Rwanda to grow its economy and be the modern society that they are aspiring to become.” 

It came as the Archbishop of Canterbury accused MPs of “unjustly maligning” churches for helping refugees.

In a joint statement with leaders of the Roman Catholic, Methodist, Baptist and United Reformed Churches, the Most Rev Justin Welby said they continued to have “deep misgivings” about the Rwanda plan and the precedent it set in how the UK treated the most vulnerable.

They also hit back at attacks on the Churches for “deliberately facilitating false asylum claims” in the wake of the disclosure that the Clapham chemical attacker was granted the right to remain in the UK

after clergy supported his Christian conversion claims.

Pointing the finger at former Home Office ministers, MPs and other commentators, they said: “We are disappointed that the kindness and support offered by churches and charities to the people at the heart of this debate – those fleeing war, persecution and violence trying to find a place of safety – has been unjustly maligned by some for political reasons.” 

Rishi Sunak has been threatened with legal action by two civil service unions over the Rwanda scheme.

The FDA, a union representing senior civil servants, is expected to convene its executive committee next Monday.

The union is likely to launch a judicial review the following day, arguing that ministers’ new power to disregard interim ECHR rulings would mean telling civil servants to break international law.

Paul O’Connor, the senior national officer for the Public and Commercial Services Union, said it was considering legal action over the Rwanda policy. “It’s our members who will have to put this unethical, inhumane and impractical policy into practice, which is why we’ve opposed this from day one and shall continue to do so by keeping our options open in considering a legal challenge,” he said.

Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for Human Rights, who oversees the ECHR, said Mr Sunak should rethink the Rwanda scheme because of the risk it posed to human rights and rule of law. 

“The adoption of the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill by the UK Parliament raises major issues about the human rights of asylum seekers and the rule of law more generally,” he said.

“The UK Government should refrain from removing people under the Rwanda policy and reverse the Bill’s effective infringement of judicial independence.”