Month: May 2024

Religion Media Centre: Quakers say: Starmer must keep promise to block ‘cruel’ Rwanda plan By Lianne Kolirin

Immigration has long been a hot political issue and now, with only weeks to go until the general election, it remains at the top of the agenda.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak has pledged to plough on with his Rwanda deportation plan, though he has been forced to admit that no planes will take off for the east African country before the nation decides on his political future on 4 July.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has promised to scrap the deal if he comes to power.

Should he emerge victorious — which the polls widely predict — there’s one group who will be particularly driven to hold him to his word: Britain’s Quakers.

March 2024: Commission on the Integration of Refugees: From Arrival to Integration: Building Communities for Refugees and for Britain

You may have been aware of this Commission on the Integration of Refugees set up by the Woolf Institute, Cambridge. The Commissioners had a very wide range of views and backgrounds, but found common ground on 16 recommendations for practical, evidence-based and costed alternatives – shifting from a model of migration enforcement to supported integration. The London School of Economics provided the costings.  One of the key recommendations is for localisation of delivery with appropriate funding. The report was published in March 2024.

19 May 2024: Boaz Trust and Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit: People in Greater Manchester are spending years, even decades, in destitution – New report on destitution in Greater Manchester

A new joint report by the Boaz Trust and Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit (GMIAU) has found that people in the city-region are forced into destitution for years, sometimes decades, as a result of their immigration status. One woman interviewed spent 16 years in immigration limbo.

The report, based on in-depth interviews with Greater Manchester residents, finds destitution is being used as a form of racialised violence, embedded within immigration law, which damages people’s physical and mental health, pushing some people towards self-harm and thoughts of suicide.

7 May 2024: We are hearing a lot about Rwanda in the news – mainly about whether it is a safe place to send asylum seekers. However, another aspect of Rwanda gets little attention – its involvement in Congo (DRC).

In Eastern Congo, bordering on Rwanda, in the provinces of Ituri and North and South Kivu, are lands rich in minerals, and armed militia terrorise the local population, killing men, women and children and driving them from their homes, so that they can mine illegally and steal the minerals in which the DRC is so rich. The armed group causing most concern at present is M23, which controls substantial amounts of territory in East Congo. It is backed by Rwanda, and exports minerals to Rwanda, where they are often re-labelled as having been sourced in Rwanda, which is not rich in minerals. The government of the DRC is currently threatening legal action against Apple for using minerals that are illegally sourced in this way.

Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, denies that Rwanda is supporting M23. However, he is alone in this – the United Nations and the United States call on Rwanda to stop its support for M23. But the sincerity of these calls can be questioned, as they are not accompanied by any pressure. In particular, Rwanda receives massive amounts of foreign aid, which form a high proportion of its national income. Unless countries are willing to cut off aid until Rwanda ceases its murderous activities in DRC, little will change.