Britain’s Home Office, under the leadership of Ms. Priti Patel, herself the daughter of immigrants from Uganda, has come up with an innovative solution for dealing with cross-Channel, and possibly other, intending “illegal migrants” to the UK. Lacking Australia’s enviable access to nearby South Pacific islands, which enabled its “Pacific Solution” as far back as 2001, the Home Office has opted instead for an onshore option further away, settling on the landlocked central-East African nation of Rwanda-around 4,200 miles from Britain.
Ms. Patel was in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital city, on 14 April 2022, to sign an agreement, a “world-first Migration and Economic Development Partnership”, with the Rwandan government to accept some asylum seekers who arrive in Britain by “unofficial routes” since 1 January 2022 onwards, without a visa or not as part of an official resettlement scheme. These intending migrants will be refused refugee status in the UK, and instead be flown on chartered jets, carrying one-way air tickets, to Rwanda, where they will be lodged in a purpose-built and privately-owned guest house in Kigali, the first of possibly many more yet to be constructed.
Britain’s new “economic partnership” with Rwanda comes with an initial investment of £120 million in Rwanda’s “economic development and growth”. It seems that the refugees will be encouraged to settle in Rwanda rather than allowed back to the UK.
Rwanda seems an interesting choice of country to resettle migrants. But despite its small size and the highest population density in sub-Saharan Africa, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, speaking in Kent on the day the “uncapped” agreement was signed, confirmed that Rwanda has the capacity to absorb tens of thousands of incomers over the years ahead. To be precise, Rwanda’s 13.5 million people are crammed into a land area of 9,525 square miles. It has no colonial links with the UK, having been part of German East Africa (1890-1916) and then of the Belgian colony of Ruanda-Urundi (1916-1962), which split into Rwanda and Burundi at independence in 1962. The lack of substantial links also means there are no direct flights between the two countries.
But Rwanda has its plus points. The picturesque country, nicknamed le pays des mille collines (the land of thousands of hills) and sometimes referred to as the Switzerland of Africa, is home to rugged mountains, including the volcanic Virunga range in the northwest, which is the abode of the protected mountain gorilla. The high elevation is responsible for a pleasant tropical highland climate. The soil is fertile, and supports a variety of agricultural produce as well as the cultivation of coffee (the main export) and tea. Most important, the people are reputed to be friendly and it is widely agreed that Rwanda is safe place for expatriates to live in. Communication is also easier, since English became an official language, alongside Kinyarwanda and French, in 1994 and was designated the language of educational instruction in 2008.
Rwanda is probably best known throughout the world for its history of mass genocide. Although home to a single tribal group, the Banyarwanda, its three sub-groupings have had a troubled history in recent times. The dominant Tutsi owned land and herds of cattle and collected taxes, the more numerous Hutus were mostly farmers, who cultivated the land, and the Twa performed menial duties. These groups spoke the same language, Kinyarwanda, shared the same religion, coexisted peacefully, and even intermarried. During 1933, the Belgian administration, as part of a “divide and rule” policy, conducted a census and began issuing the Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa with identity books specifying their “ethnic” class. Under Belgian rule, the Tutsi came to play a dominant role in the economy, while almost all colonial administrative posts were reserved for them.
Tensions between the Hutu peasants and their Tutsi masters erupted in 1959, and continued through the early years of Rwanda’s independent existence. The Belgians backed the Hutus, replacing most of the Tutsi chiefs with Hutus. The Hutus then turned on their erstwhile Tutsi masters. In 1962, Rwanda’s new government was intent on maintaining Hutu hegemony. By 1990, around 700,000 Tutsi had fled Rwanda, mainly to Burundi, Congo, Uganda, and Tanzania. At the same time, the ruling Tutsi minority in neighbouring Burundi was engaged in the genocide of Hutus.
Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda since April 2000, is the Tutsi leader of a Hutu-majority nation. He was on the winning side of the bloody Rwandan civil war of October 1990 to July 1994 as commander of the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front. Under Kagame’s rule, Rwanda has entered a period of stability, during which its economy has boomed, living standards have risen, near-universal primary school enrolment achieved, and a national health service introduced, even as allegations of human rights abuses and intolerance for political dissent continue.
The British government is under considerable pressure at home to come up with an effective solution to the “refugee crisis” and not to be seen as a “soft touch for illegal migration”. Supporters of its actions will undoubtedly be happy that the problem is being shifted thousands of miles away, out of sight and mind, while opponents have deemed the proposed plans to be cruel, inhumane, hypocritical, unethical, racist, unworkable, and so on. In common with many other cunning plans, the Rwandan deal appears to have been hatched in considerable secrecy, to the extent that Lord Harrington, newly-appointed Minister for Refugees, seemed unaware of its existence even a few days before it was announced. And in keeping with other supposedly clever plans, its success lies in its execution: how migrants are selected, the logistics and costs of transportation, the availability and suitability of temporary accommodation in Rwanda, the speed and efficiency of processing of new arrivals, and their subsequent assimilation and integration into Rwandan society. To borrow a colloquial phrase, the proof of the pudding lies in the eating.
Ashis Banerjee