Musings From Abroad

Britain to spend $215,035 per head in migrant deal with Rwanda

Published

1 year ago

June 27, 2023

Britain has announced that its plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda will cost 169,000 pounds ($215,035) per person.

The cost of deporting each person to Rwanda would include an average payment to Rwanda of 105,000 pounds for holding each asylum seeker, 22,000 pounds for travel and accompanying, and 18,000 pounds for processing and legal charges.

According to Home Secretary (interior minister), Suella Braverman, if nothing is done, the annual expense of hosting asylum seekers will increase from its current level of roughly 3.6 billion pounds to 11 billion pounds.

Suella Braverman said these costs must be considered alongside the impact of deterring others from trying to reach Britain and the rising cost of housing asylum seekers.

“The economic impact assessment clearly shows that doing nothing is not an option,” she said.

In an effort to discourage asylum seekers from trying to cross the English Channel from France in small boats, the British government disclosed plans to deport thousands of refugees to the East African nation last year. The programme is part of a £148 million contract.

The UK government has admitted that while the savings through the migration deal might be “highly uncertain”, the deal is capable of deterring almost two in five people from arriving on small boats.

Nonetheless, the migrant agreement has drawn criticism from Britons. The Scottish National Party charged that the government was deporting desperate people for an “astronomical” sum of money while doing nothing to assist British citizens struggling to pay rising rent and food prices.

The British Labour Party said the economic assessment was a “complete joke” and failed to accurately say what the overall cost of the plan would be.

The High Court in London decided the programme was legal in December, but some human rights organizations and asylum seekers from countries like Syria, Sudan, Iraq, Iran, and Vietnam are challenging that ruling. A fresh court decision about the deal’s legality is anticipated on Thursday.

A record 45,000 people crossed the English Channel in small boats last year, mostly from France. More than 11,000 people have come this year so far.

Related Topics:Asylum Seekers Britain Featured Rwanda

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Musings From Abroad

Seeking to expand ties in Africa, Indonesia’s Prabowo attends D-8 economic meeting in Egypt

Published

14 hours ago

December 18, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

According to the government, Indonesian President, Prabowo Subianto, travelled to Egypt on Tuesday to attend meetings of the D-8 Organisation for Economic Cooperation, a group of eight significant Muslim developing nations.

To enhance collaboration between the nations spanning from Southeast Asia to Africa, the D-8 was formed in 1997 and consists of Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey. Beginning in January 2026, Indonesia will serve as the group’s chair.

Prabowo said that he would meet with Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the president of Egypt.

“Egypt is our close friend, our strategic partner and an important country in the Middle East,” he said before his departure, adding he would also meet the Egyptian business community.

He would go to Malaysia from Egypt and then return to Indonesia.

Since taking office in October, Prabowo has stated that his administration will uphold Indonesia’s long-standing non-alignment foreign policy.

Since winning the presidency earlier this year, he has been to more than 20 nations, including China, the US, Japan, and Russia.

Musings From Abroad

UN warns Sudan rebels may be getting weapons in Chad from UAE cargo planes

Published

4 days ago

December 14, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Flight data and satellite photographs reveal that dozens of UAE cargo planes have landed at a small Chad airstrip since Sudan’s civil war began last year, which some U.N. experts and diplomats fear is being used to transport guns into the fight.

At least 86 UAE planes have landed at Amdjarass airfield in eastern Chad since the war started in April 2023.

According to flight data and business records examined by Reuters, three-quarters of them were operated by airlines accused by the U.N. of transporting Emirati weaponry to a Libyan warlord.

The UAE, a key Western partner in the Middle East, insists it sends Sudan aid through Chad, not armaments.

The UAE denied “credible” allegations that it was supplying Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group fighting the Sudanese army in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions, via the Chad airstrip in January.

Reuters uncovered footage from Amdjarass this year, revealing two pallets loaded with khaki containers, some labelled with the UAE flag, on the tarmac.

Reuters is obscuring the footage’s date and provenance for fear of reprisals.

Three weapons specialists, two of whom were U.N. inspectors, said the containers were unlikely to convey humanitarian material, generally bundled in cardboard boxes coated in plastic and stacked high on pallets due to its lightweight. The footage shows metal containers packed low on pallets.

One U.N. weapons inspector said the contents were “highly probably ammunition or weapons, based on the design and colour of boxes,” but requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the information.

He stated that right-hand pallet cases are long and slender, suggesting weaponry.

Reuters could not independently verify the containers’ contents. The filming date is being withheld to protect the source.

The UAE government told Reuters it has deployed 159 relief planes with more than 10,000 tonnes of food and medical assistance to feed its Amdjarass field hospital.

“We firmly reject the baseless and unfounded claims regarding the provision of arms and military equipment to any warring party since the beginning of the conflict,” the statement said.

To counter Islamist militants, the oil-rich Gulf kingdom has interfered in crises from Yemen to Libya since the Arab Spring protests of 2011. The UAE views Muslim Brotherhood and other groups as threats to internal stability.

In Sudan’s army, Islamists affiliated with deposed President Omar al-Bashir have long held power.

Senior RSF official Brigadier General Omar Hamdan rejected foreign help. He told Nairobi media on Nov. 18 that Sudanese firms made its guns and ammunition. The RSF declined to comment on this topic.