Geneva - The UN refugee chief on Monday described a UK plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda as "all wrong", saying it would create a catastrophic precedent for other countries.
"This is all wrong, this deal, for so many different reasons," Filippo Grandi told journalists at a Geneva press briefing. "The precedent that this creates is catastrophic for a concept that needs to be shared, like asylum," he added.
A UK court decided on Monday that the first flight to take migrants arriving illegally in Britain to Rwanda could go ahead on Tuesday after judges dismissed campaigners' attempts to win an injunction to stop it.
The Court of Appeal in London has refused to grant an injunction to block Britain from sending its first flight of asylum seekers to Rwanda, international media reported on Monday.
The number of people scheduled to leave on Tuesday's plane has fallen to less than a dozen, say British authorities.
The government says the deportation strategy will undermine people-smuggling networks and stem the flow of migrants risking their lives by crossing the English Channel in small boats from Europe.
Human rights groups say the policy is inhumane and will put migrants at risk. The UNHCR has said Rwanda, whose own human rights record is under scrutiny, does not have the capacity to process the claims.
This past weekend, Human Rights Watch wrote a public letter to the UK Home Secretary, expressing their grave concerns with the UK government’s plan to expel people seeking asylum in the UK to Rwanda, through irregular routes, in accordance with the Asylum Partnership Arrangement, and to strongly urge the government to rescind the scheme, and not proceed with the first removals scheduled for June 14, 2022.
IOL