Boat migrants deported from the UK can look forward to having a “dignified life” in Africa, a spokeswoman for the Rwandan government has said.
Yolande Makolo, a spokeswoman for the Rwandan government, has told boat migrants who are set to be deported from the United Kingdom that they can look forward to having a “dignified life” in Africa.
Although the UK legal system has given the plans to deport migrants to the sub-Saharan state the conditional green light, multiple hurdles still lie in its way, with several legal challenges and appeals likely awaiting it before it meaningfully gets underway. Such is the extent of intended legal action from open-borders activists possible while the United Kingdom remains in the European Court of Human Rights, it is possible the plan will remain on ice beyond the next general election, some have warned.
Nevertheless, the UK government has continued to pursue the policy, with the country’s Home Office releasing a video statement by Makolo on Tuesday promising migrants a good life after deportation.
In the half-minute clip, Makolo says that the deportation deal between the UK and Rwanda is about “investing in people” and ensuring the “wellbeing and development of both migrants and Rwandans in Rwanda”.
“In Rwanda we believe that Africans and other people should be able to live a dignified life in Africa,” the government spokeswoman said.
She then added that migrants should “not need to take dangerous journeys that endanger their lives in order to have opportunities to live and develop themselves”.
The short video with its cheerful, corporate-style musical backing track and its quick and comforting tone, comes after months of criticism of the Rwanda plan by left-wing activists which has, supporters of the plan say, at times crossed into the outright “racist” itself as it criticised Rwanda itself as totally incapable of supporting refugees with British money.
Indeed, despite the left-wing perception of Rwanda as a backwards, underdeveloped, genocide-stricken nation, the country has seen significant development since the violence of the 1990s, already nearly 30 years ago.
According to the World Bank, Rwanda has maintained strong and steady economic growth since the genocide, with only the recent COVID pandemic seemingly threatening the country’s transition into becoming a middle-income country by 2035.