Musings From Abroad

Britain to give rejected asylum seekers £3,000 to move to Rwanda

Published

8 months ago

March 14, 2024

As part of a voluntary initiative to help reduce the backlog of refugees whose requests to stay in the country have been denied, the British government intends to pay asylum seekers up to 3,000 pounds ($3,836) each to relocate to Rwanda.

The government’s stalled plan to forcibly deport the majority of asylum seekers to Rwanda is unrelated to the new agreement with that country. The plan was declared unlawful by the UK Supreme Court last year.

Rather, it replicates an already-in-place government policy in which asylum seekers are offered financial support to return to their home countries from Britain; however, under the new plan, the funding will only be granted to those who consent to reside in Rwanda.

Junior Business Minister, Kevin Hollinrake said on Wednesday that the new policy was a good use of public funds because it was less expensive than caring for British nationals who had been refused asylum but had not yet been deported.

Tens of thousands of asylum seekers in Britain have had their requests denied, but they are unable to leave the country because it is illegal for the government to send people back to war-torn or human rights-vulnerable nations.

“So, 3,000 pounds, of course, that’s a lot of money, but nevertheless, it costs a lot of money to keep people in the UK who are failed asylum seekers,” Hollinrake told LBC Radio.

Promises to stop the unauthorised arrivals of small inflatable boats carrying asylum seekers on England’s south coast have cost Prime Minister Rishi Sunak vast political capital.

The Supreme Court declared last year that the government’s plan to send thousands of people to Rwanda was illegal because it would have violated both international and British human rights laws.

Sunak’s government is attempting to override court opposition by putting legislation through parliament that would obstruct additional legal challenges by designating Rwanda as a “safe country” for asylum seekers.

The British government has stated that Rwanda can currently take in a few hundred British asylum seekers annually, and that number could be raised.

Prior to the anticipated national election in the latter part of this year, Sunak has stated that he wants the first deportation flights to depart within the next few months in order to fulfill his promise to “stop the boats.”

Related Topics:Assylum seekers Britain Featured Rwanda

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Musings From Abroad

Finnish court imprisons Nigeria’s Simon Ekpa for aiding terrorism

Published

5 hours ago

November 21, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Simon Ekpa, a Nigerian separatist leader based abroad, has been placed under detention by the Päijät Häme District Court in Finland on suspicion of inciting others to commit acts of terrorism.

According to the local daily, Helsingin Sanomat, the court rendered the ruling on Thursday following his arraignment by the Central Criminal Police for his involvement in the terror attacks that have afflicted the southeast area of Nigeria.

“The police suspect that the man has promoted his efforts from Finland with means that have led to violence against civilians in the region of South-Eastern Nigeria,” stated Otto Hiltunen, the crime commissioner and investigation head.

“The man has carried out his activity, among other things, on his social media channels.”

Hiltunen also informed the court that the police suspected four additional individuals in Finland of funding Ekpa’s activities.

According to the story, Ekpa is of Nigerian descent and was born in the Finnish city of Lahti.

His offence occurred between August 23, 2021, and November 18, 2024, according to court documents cited in the publication.

Ekpa is not the only person the police have arrested. In February 2023, they caught him at a private Lahtian flat, but he was freed the same day.

Through the Eastern Security Network (ESN) and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement, Ekpa has continued to be outspoken on social media, raising money and agitating for a Biafran nation to secede. In the southeast part of Nigeria, both factions have been involved in acts of violence, murders, and maimings.

Since gaining formal independence in 1960, Nigeria has seen the emergence of several separatist organisations. The latest surge of calls for self-determination among different ethnic groups has been louder under its immediate previous President Muhammadu Buhari.

Musings From Abroad

Malian singer Rokia Traore arrested in Italy, to be sent to Belgium

Published

1 day ago

November 20, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

After Italy’s top court denied her appeal, well-known Malian singer, Rokia Traore, who was detained in Rome in June due to a global child custody dispute, will be sent over to Belgium in the next few days, her attorney announced on Wednesday.

The 50-year-old Traore is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR and one of Africa’s most well-known vocalists.

“Rokia suffered an injustice. She was arrested without the Belgian criminal court hearing her voice. Now, the battle for Rokia’s rights moves to Brussels,” lawyer Maddalena Del Re said in a statement to Reuters.

The attorney also stated that in its decision late Tuesday, Italy’s Court of Cassation upheld an extradition decision from the European Court of Justice.

Under a European arrest order, Traore was taken into custody on June 20 at the Fiumicino airport in Rome. In October 2023, she was given a two-year prison sentence in Belgium related to a dispute over her daughter’s custody.

She had flown to perform outside Rome’s Colosseum, and she has been imprisoned in Civitavecchia, close to the Italian city, since her detention at Fiumicino.

Lawyer Del Re said that because a conviction was rendered without the defendant’s presence, the Belgian process goes against both international norms and Italian constitutional standards.

After she disregarded a court order to turn over her baby to her Belgian father, the singer’s divorced ex-partner, she was initially taken into custody in France in 2020 on a Belgian arrest warrant.

She disobeyed orders not to leave France until her extradition case was handled by taking a private jet to Mali months after being conditionally released. Mali is where her daughter resides.