Shipping asylum-seekers to Rwanda could wreck the Refugee Convention

BRITAIN WAS one of the first countries to ratify the Refugee Convention of 1951, which spelled out countries’ obligations to protect fugitives from persecution who had arrived in their territories and not return them to danger. The convention was “an excellent instrument”, said Selwyn Lloyd, a Conservative minister in the Foreign Office. No country in Europe was doing as much to help refugees, boasted another minister.The country still leads the world in devising new ways of dealing with refugees. Now, however, Britain is leading in the opposite direction. The Conservative government is perturbed by the growing number of people (some 29,000 last year) who reach Britain in small boats crossing the Channel from France. On April 14th it signed a memorandum of understanding with Rwanda which would allow it to fly asylum-seekers who reach Britain’s shores straight to the African country without listening to their claims. Rwanda, which gets cash as part of the deal, will consider whether to grant them asylum—in Rwanda. They will not be allowed back to Britain.