4 Lessons for Trump From the UK’s Failed Rwanda Migrant Deportation Deal

On Sunday, Rwanda Foreign Minister said his country was in “initial stage” conversations with the Trump administration about an agreement to bring deportened migrants in the United States.

That news had a family ring in Great Britain, where the former government led by the conservative agreed an agreement in 2022 to permanently deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, then spent two years and sunk of millions of pounds that tried to do fruitsly to do.

When the highest court of Great Britain ruled that the proposal broke the Human Rights Law, the conservative government tried to use a new legislation to annul the sentence. But in the end, politics proved to be an almost complete failure, and the new Labor Government, which was chosen last year, discarded it, citing its enormous expense and unwavering.

Here are some lessons that the British debacle can have for the Trump administration.

It could be exensive.

The British government spent 715 million pounds, around $ 955 million, in the plan, which according to him would deter illegal migration.

In addition to £ 290 million paid directly to the Ruanda government, millions continued to prepare deportation flights, preparing detention centers and IT systems, and paying personnel and legal costs. But in the end, only four migrants ended up being Rwanda, and they were voluntarily and were paid £ 3,000 each to do so.

Official documents show that the figures were a small fraction of what would have been spent if the agreement had carried out the leg. The British government had agreed to pay Rwanda £ 150,000 for each deporteer person, a sum that would pay a “five -year integration package” or accommodation, food, medical services and education.

After the agreement was discarded, Rwanda said he would not pay any money, since there was no refund clause.

Yvette Cooper, the Secretary of the Interior of Labor, said that the conservatives finally planned to spend more than £ 10 billion in Rwanda’s policy over a period of six years.

The conservatives argued that the cost was worth it because it is that the people of companions would try to come to Great Britain in small boats if they were afraid to be Rwanda.

Rwanda probable cannot take large numbers or sports.

The country of central Africa has only a size of approximately 10,000 square miles, almost the same as Massachusetts.

The Trump administration has not revealed how many people might want to send to Rwanda, which is already one of the most densely populated nations in the world.

Duration A hearing from the British Supreme Court in 2023, a lawyer who represents the government acknowledged that the number of asylum seekers that Rwanda could take was “initially low” and cited the need for “capabilities development” in the country.

British news reports at that time suggested that a maximum of 1,000 people could have been transferred from Britain to Rwanda for about five years. In 2022, the year in which at least 45,000 people arrived in Great Britain in small boats.

Under an Israeli agreement, migrants sent to Rwanda disappeared.

Any agreement with Washington would be the last of a series of migration agreements reached by Rwanda. The African nation already organizes hundreds of African refugees from Libya who expect resettlement under an agreement agreed six years ago with the United Nations Refugee Agency and the African Union.

The British treaty never tested completely before being discarded. But a secret agreement signed with Israel operated for five years before being ruled by the Israeli Supreme Court in 2013. The details of that agreement were discussed the judicial battle in Britain.

According to the Israeli agreement, asylum seekers erythre and Sudanese who had sought refuge in Israel were deported to Rwanda with “explicit companies” who would consider their statements and Windel “enjoy human rights and freedoms,” the hearings of the British Supreme Court.

But the British judges discovered that Rwanda had not complied with these guarantees and that asylum seekers deported by Israel “were routinely transferred to Uganda” being to the border or putting in flights.

The Rwanda government did not immediately respond to comments requests for this article.

There could be legal challenges.

The Trump administration has already shown a will to challenge the courts, since so far it has refused to fulfill the orders to return at least two men erroneously deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador.

But in the case of Great Britain, the fact that the plan had breached multiple national laws that enforced human rights, as well as the United Nations Refugee Convention, contributed to the final failure of the plan. According to the terms of the agreement, Rwanda had to take undocumented migrants and process their asylum applications. Even if it was found that migrants found that they describe for refugee status, they were expected to be resettle in Rwanda and never return to Britain.

The British Supreme Court ruled in November 2023 that the plan was illegal due to the risk that genuine refugees could be sent back to the countries that had fled, putting their safety at risk.

Abdi Latif Dahir Contributed reports.