The UK Government Wants to Relocate Refugees to Rwanda. But Refugees Have Already Been Relocated; Why Make Them Suffer More?

{Update June 15, 2022: Thanks to an intervention by the European Court of Human Rights, the first flight of asylum seekers was cancelled minutes before take-off. However, the UK government is still committed to sending asylum seekers -- including torture and trafficking victims -- from the UK to Rwanda. We must use this opportunity to urge the UK government to reverse the Rwanda agreement!}

Imagine traveling thousands of miles to flee from violent conflict or political persecution, enduring extreme trauma and physical suffering along the way, only to arrive at your destination and be told you're actually going to be sent somewhere else. A new proposal in the United Kingdom plans to do just that, and innocent refugees will suffer greatly as a result.

Sign now to demand the UK Government stop their inhumane plan to ship refugees to Rwanda!

The proposed immigration policy is unclear about who would be affected or how the plan would be carried out. It appears that the move is simply an attempt by the UK government to score political points with UK citizens -- people who were lucky enough to be born in a country that colonized the world and promoted violence beyond its borders. Many refugees took long, difficult routes to make their way to Britain to begin with, enduring highly dangerous journeys with many risks. There is no logical reason to push them off to a third country on a different continent after they've started building a life in the UK.

The 1951 Refugee Convention tried to prevent this exact scenario from happening. Human rights organizations around the world -- as well as the international agreements they have advocated for -- have warned about the dangers of moving already vulnerable folks to a distant and unfamiliar country. This is cruel and unusual, especially given that many of these refugees have had to travel far and through extremely dangerous conditions to get to the UK to begin with.

The plan also will likely be ineffective at alleviating any pressures on the UK's immigration system. So what this really means is that the goal here is to gain some cheap political points off of xenophobia. But, real peoples' lives are at risk, and they should not be used as pawns.

The world's eyes and hearts have been opened recently by people fleeing from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and we must keep that same energy for people fleeing crises in other countries and regions, especially the global south. We have to put pressure on the UK Government to abandon this plan! Sign the petition now if you agree!