Boris Johnson to send asylum seekers to Rwanda to cut illegal sea crossings

Under the plan, which requires the approval of Parliament, most migrants who cross illegally will be deemed inadmissible for claiming asylum in Britain, because their journeys will have taken them through safe countries before their arrival in the United Kingdom.

Johnson suggested that “tens of thousands” of such migrants could be sent to Rwanda, a Commonwealth nation, which could either accept them as refugees or send them back to their home countries.

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With 80 million displaced people in the world, many fleeing poverty and violence, Britain is not alone in seeking to make illegal migration harder — and to move the asylum process “offshore.”

Denmark also explored a migration deal with Rwanda last year. Israel tried convincing illegal migrants from Eritrea and Sudan to accept cash and a one-way ticket to Rwanda in a pilot program.

The European Union is continuing to task the Libyan coast guard with pushing migrant vessels back toward North Africa. In 2019, the Trump administration sent 900 asylum seekers who crossed the U.S. border to Guatemala. President Biden suspended the program.

Johnson is now taking a page from the Trump playbook. British officials say all inadmissible adults who arrive starting on Jan. 1 will be sent to Rwanda via chartered jets. Britain will not send children or unaccompanied minors, nor will officials break up families with children.

Individuals deemed to have viable asylum claims may remain in Britain to pursue their cases, but they will no longer be housed in hotels. Instead, they will live in former military barracks in north England.

“It’s a striking fact that around seven out of 10 of those arriving in small boats last year were men under 40, paying people smugglers to queue-jump and taking up our capacity to help genuine women and child refugees,” Johnson said.

“This is particularly perverse as those attempting crossings are not directly fleeing imminent peril as is the intended purpose of our asylum system,” he said. “They have passed through manifestly safe countries, including many in Europe, where they could — and should — have claimed asylum.”

British Home Secretary Priti Patel traveled to Rwanda on Thursday to sign the deal, which includes $160 million in aid to that country. The plan, part of a new Nationality and Borders Bill, now goes to Parliament. Johnson’s Conservative Party holds a large majority there.

Yvette Cooper, a leader of the opposition Labour Party, called the proposal “unworkable, unethical and extortionate.” Cooper tweeted that Australia, which sends unauthorized migrants who…