Iran: Deportation of asylum seekers to Rwanda historic shame

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The Iranian Foreign Ministry criticized Tuesday the UK government's plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry considered that what is happening is a historical shame for London and those who seek to clean up their colonial history.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry underlined that the forced expulsion and transfer of asylum seekers to a third country amid the silence of countries that claim to defend human rights is a disgrace and a violation of the rights of these people.

Appeals court refused to block deportation plan

It is noteworthy that the plan tailored by the British government to deport asylum-seekers of various nationalities to Rwanda was approved by a UK court on Monday after the appeals court refused to block the plan criticized as inhumane.

Lawyers had been working on behalf of asylum-seekers who were informed they would be deported to Rwanda to prevent London from taking them to a third country.

In Geneva, UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi called the UK government policy "all wrong" and said it should not be "exporting its responsibility to another country."

An "innovative program"

In Kigali, government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo told reporters that the deportation plan was an "innovative program" to tackle "a broken global asylum system."

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson meanwhile told his senior ministers that the policy was "the right thing to do."

It is noteworthy that deported asylum seekers who make the 4,000-mile (6,500-kilometers) trip to Kigali will be put up in the Hope Hostel, which was built in 2014 to give refuge to orphans from the 1994 genocide of around 800,000 mainly ethnic Tutsis.

"This is not a prison"

Hostel manager Ismael Bakina said up to 100 migrants can be accommodated at a rate of $65 per person a day, claiming that "this is not a prison."

As part of the UK-Rwanda agreement, anyone landing in Britain illegally is liable to be given a one-way ticket for processing and resettlement in Rwanda.

The government in Kigali has said the deportations will begin slowly and rejected criticism that Rwanda is not a safe country and that serious human rights abuses were rife.

Rwandan opposition parties also question whether the resettlement scheme will work given high youth unemployment rates.