EFF calls on the government of Rwanda to pull out of the asylum seekers and refugees agreement with the United Kingdom

18 April 2022

The EFF calls on the government of Rwanda and President Paul Kagame to cancel the agreement they have entered with the xenophobic and anti-immigrant government of the United Kingdom. The agreement which the Rwandan government has entered into essentially means that all Asylum Seekers who will enter the UK from different countries will be forcefully deported to Rwanda and kept there until the situation in their countries has improved.

The Rwanda Government has effectively entered into this immoral and slave trading arrangement in exchange for millions of pounds that the UK government will pay for the forceful deportation of asylum seekers. The forceful deportation of asylum seekers to any country they have not chosen to seek refuge in is not different from slave trading, where slaves were forcefully transported in the oceans to destinations they have not chosen.

The EFF therefore calls on Rwanda to cancel the agreement with the UK and allow the erstwhile colonial masters and invaders to address the question of immigration on their own. It is obvious that a lot of people will choose the UK as destination of asylum and refuge because the UK has historically built its wealth through plundering and pillaging of so many countries in the world. The people of the world are within their historical and present rights to go to a land and place where a majority of stolen wealth is kept.

The UK continues to be home to tons of precious minerals and metals forcefully and immorally stolen from many parts of the world through colonialism and neo-colonial control. The UK and London in particular continue to be a tax haven of wealth stolen through tax avoidance and illicit financial flows from many countries in the world. The UK's controlled jurisdictions of Bermuda, British Virgin Islands and many other territories continue to be tax havens of wealth that would have developed countries that are sending asylum seekers to the UK.

It is therefore immoral and out rightly unacceptable that the UK wants to export its historical and current problems to another country, simply because they can pay for it. We call on all multilateral institutions in the world, particularly the United Nations to condemn, reject and resist the UK and Rwanda immoral agreement which will lead to forced deportations.

We as the EFF will write letters to the government of Rwanda and to all relevant multilateral institutions to encourage them to move away from this immoral and unacceptable agreement.

Issued by Sinawo Thambo, National Spokesperson, EFF, 18 April 2022