Boris Johnson: the “Rwanda way”

Boris Johnson's government has reached an agreement with the Rwandan authorities to send back to that African country the majority of men under the age of forty, of any nationality, who try to enter the United Kingdom irregularly.

The idea of ​​outsourcing the management of irregular immigration is not new.

Australia, probably the inspiration of the British Executive, has been sending many of those who try to reach its shores to several Pacific islands for years.

What makes Johnson's plans especially cruel - "contrary to the nature of God", according to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby - is their blatant use as political propaganda and the very fact that they represent the confirmation of the failure of Brexit. .

There are no official figures on irregular immigration because the Government is reluctant to publish them.

Estimates from refugee aid organizations and the media such as the BBC put the number in 2021 at almost 29,000.

The forecasts of the Ministry of the Interior, recently leaked to the media, suggest that this year it could reach 65,000 people.

Johnson and the Eurosceptics promised Britons, during the 2016 Brexit referendum, that they would regain control of their lives, and their borders too.

It was the brilliant message with which they achieved victory.

Years later, Downing Street has come face to face with a reality that the European continent had already had to face much earlier, and in much higher numbers.

Johnson and his Minister of the Interior, Priti Patel, have demanded that the Government of France have greater control of its coasts, and that it accept the return of the immigrants who arrived through the waters of the canal.

Paris has been very clear: it is an issue that must be negotiated directly with the EU institutions.

Once again, the community loyalty of the partners frustrates London's attempts to bypass Brussels with bilateral agreements.

Johnson knows that the “Rwanda route” will be questioned in the British courts, and that his Nationalities and Borders Bill, which includes the option of sending what his government calls “economic immigrants” to a third country, will undergo drastic amendments in the House of Lords.

But he has unveiled the measure just three weeks before local elections on May 5, which take place across the UK.

Reigniting the inflamed immigration debate serves to hide the fact that Johnson has been fined by police for breaking the law by participating in banned parties in Downing Street during the lockdown.

Today, the House of Commons decides whether to open a contempt investigation.