Depuis 2022, le Royaume-Uni prévoit de relocaliser certains demandeurs d’asile au Rwanda pour dissuader les traversées de la Manche, une politique contestée sur les plans juridique et politique jusqu’en 2025.

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The plan immediately generated major legal, political and human-rights controversy.

What happened? (timeline)

• June 2022: First deportation flight was scheduled but blocked by emergency court rulings, after the ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights) intervened.
• Nov 2023: The UK Supreme Court ruled the policy unlawful.
• April 2024: Parliament passed the Safety of Rwanda Act to remove legal barriers and enable the scheme. The plan resumed politically and operational steps (raids/detention/preparation) followed.
• 2024-2025: Ongoing legal battles, few actual returns and more debate over cost and legality.

The numbers

In the year ending March 2025, 109,343 people claimed asylum in the UK — a 17% increase over the previous year. This is the highest figure since records began in 1979.

About one-third (≈ 36,123) of applicants arrived via small boats across the English Channel.

System under pressure: slow procedures and many cases stuck in initial stages.

Post-Brexit context

Since January 1 of 2021, new post-Brexit rules allow the Home Office to declare some asylum claims inadmissible if the claimant has a connection to a "safe third country."

Drawback

The UK is no longer part of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). This means the UK also opted out of Dublin III Regulation, which previously required asylum seekers to be returned to the first EU country they entered.

About 90% of irregular migrants arriving in the EU pay smugglers to facilitate entry.

Smuggling migrants is very profitable. In Europe, criminal networks in 2015 made an estimated €4.7-6 billion from migrant smuggling.

Along Mediterranean routes, smugglers charge per person roughly €1,300-€3,000 depending on route and year.

Political Actors & Their Parties

• Rishi Sunak (PM at the time): Conservative Party. Made the scheme a top priority to "stop the smugglers' boats".
• Priti Patel (Home Secretary 2022): Conservative Party. Originally signed the Rwanda agreement.
• Suella Braverman (Home Secretary 2022-23): Conservative Party. Pushed for tougher measures to implement the policy.

The policy is a key initiative of the Conservative Party (centre-right to right-wing). It is strongly opposed by parties like Labour and the Liberal Democrats.


Let's reflect on that

To help you remember, here are a few questions you can reflect on and discuss with your friends. This could help you feeling more confident during a colle or when finding a leading question.

• In what ways do the high financial costs of implementing and defending such asylum policies impact a government's ability to fund alternative solutions, such as strengthening domestic asylum processing capacity and addressing root causes of migration?
• To what extent does the outsourcing of asylum responsibilities by "wealthy nations" to third countries comply with ethical principles?

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