Call for humanity in Rwanda policy debate

Professor Giorgia Doná, co-director of the Centre for Migration, Refugees and Belonging at the University of East London, has responded to the escalating rhetoric surrounding the UK-Rwanda migrant deal.

As emergency legislation comes before Parliament in response to a Supreme Court ruling which said the government’s plan to fly immigrants to Rwanda was unlawful, Professor Doná expressed her concern that the human dimension had been lost in the debate.  

She said, 

The profound implications for vulnerable asylum seekers and the integrity of international human rights obligations are largely forgotten, and the immigrants’ status is reframed as that of intruders, criminals or, simply, numbers to be reduced.

“These individuals caught in the crossfire become pawns in a grander game in which they have everything at stake. Often, they have endured untold suffering in their home countries and embark on perilous journeys to find safety. Yet, the scheme fixates on the legitimacy of these victims, preventing them from settling and contributing to their new home country.

Professor Doná, from the University’s School of Education and Communities, questioned the efficacy of the deterrence model, pointing out one unintended consequence was the bolstering of trafficking networks.  

She said, “The focus on victims, rather than addressing the root causes, inadvertently strengthens trafficking networks by portraying the victims, not the traffickers, as the villains. The deterrence model perpetuates a cycle of punitive measures that fails to deter those desperate enough to seek refuge, placing them in increasing peril.”

She said that legislation was attempting to change the nature of reality by statute. The uncertain situation on the ground in Rwanda had not changed, she noted, yet the law would, in effect, declare the deportees safe to avoid legal challenge. This further enhanced the threat to migrants’ wellbeing.

Prof Doná said that the Supreme Court's recent ruling against the UK-Rwanda deportation scheme was more than a legal outcome; it was a call for a paradigm shift in the tone and substance of the debate.  

She said, “This global crisis is being met with a fragmented, often indifferent, response. In some measure, the intervention of the West into regional disputes, such as Afghanistan, has exacerbated the refugee problem, a problem which the UK now wishes to sell back to financially disadvantaged countries.”  

In her call for action, Professor Doná urged a departure from the cold calculus of numbers. Instead, she encouraged embracing imaginative, comprehensive solutions that acknowledge the human cost of our actions.

She said, “Migration, far from being a problem, is a powerful driver of sustainable development. Policies must shift their focus to advance the socio-economic wellbeing of migrants and society, adhering to international standards that respect human rights regardless of migration status.  

“This approach not only preserves the dignity of refugees but also recognises the positive contributions migrants make to communities, for example, becoming the doctors and nurses that sustain institutions like the NHS, just as waves of immigrants have done before.”