The United Kingdom (UK) parliament has passed Rwanda asylum law that will allow the government to send asylum seekers to Rwanda for their claims to be considered by the East African nation.
- The new policy will give UK’s immigration authorities power to send any asylum seeker entering the U.K. “illegally” after January 2022 to Rwanda.
- Those individuals can also be forbidden from ever applying for asylum in the U.K.
- It will apply to anyone who arrives in the U.K. without prior permission — anyone who travels on a small boat or truck — even if their aim is to claim asylum and they have legitimate grounds to do so.
- The critics cite concerns about the East African country’s own human rights record and the risk asylum seekers may be sent back to countries where they face danger.
About Rwanda
- Rwanda is a landlocked country lying south of the Equator in east-central Africa.
- Rwanda is often referred to as le pays des mille collines (French: “land of a thousand hills”).
- The capital Kigali is located in the center of the country on the Ruganwa River.
- The country is often mentioned in media due to ethnic strife between the majority Hutu and minority Tutsi factions.
- Rwanda is bounded to the north by Uganda, to the east by Tanzania, to the south by Burundi, and to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa) and Lake Kivu.
