Statement on the transfer of asylum-seekers under the UK-Rwanda arrangement

We are profoundly disappointed and concerned by the decision of the UK government to proceed with plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda and externalise its fundamental obligations to people seeking asylum in the UK. The plans actively undermine the UN Refugee Convention which the UK contributed to creating after the second World War and is signatory to, and sets a negative precedent for the respect of the rights of refugees worldwide. As paediatricians, we wish to draw attention to the significant harm posed to children by this policy, either through being deported themselves, since children are not explicitly excluded and maybe be mistaken as adults during inaccurate age assessments, or due to separation from deported family members.

The UK-Rwanda agreement ignores advice from experts who have clearly recommended to the government that the provision of safe routes is the most effective way to prevent dangerous journeys and loss of life at sea. Indeed the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has opposed the policy. The cruelty of the approach is deeply concerning and suggests that the welfare of people seeking asylum is not the motivation behind this policy. Similar schemes, such as in Australia, have had severe negative consequences for the health of children and adults, and provide ample evidence of the harm of offshoring and externalising asylum processes. 

Whilst children might not be the primary target of the policy, they will undoubtedly be amongst the victims. The deportation of parents, siblings and other family members to such a distant territory, risks undermining children’s right to family life, their physical and mental health and social and financial security. Furthermore, only children who are unaccompanied have been explicitly excluded from deportation to Rwanda, and it seems other children could be deported. 

It appears that there are currently insufficient safeguards to prevent children being mistakenly assessed as adults and deported to Rwanda. As explained in this letter to Secretaries of State Michael Gove and Priti Patel, from Barnardos, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) and numerous other children’s charities, asylum-seeking children already face the risk of being detained as adults, based on ‘scientific methods’ of age estimation which carry a margin of error of up to five years. In misclassifying children as adults, their rights specific to their childhood status are removed. 

Under the proposed policy, those who are granted asylum will not be allowed to return to the U.K. but are expected to build a life in Rwanda. This will be particularly harsh and challenging for children, who will have had their education interrupted and will be dealing with the psychological aftermath of the situations in their home countries and en route to seek asylum, as well as from separation, deportation and detention.

At a time of increasing displacement worldwide, including a war in Europe, there could be no worse time for the UK to retreat from its moral obligation to protect the right to seek refuge. The UK accepts very low numbers of refugees relative to its wealth compared to many other countries, therefore abandoning commitments to the UN Refugee Convention and removing rights from refugees is all the more unnecessary and cruel. The policy sends a profoundly negative signal to the rest of the world where the majority of refugees live in much larger numbers, and weakens international solidarity on refugee protection.

We call on the government to abandon the Rwanda deal and to return to respecting its moral obligation and international legal commitment to refugees in the 1951 convention, and to genuinely prioritise the wellbeing of people seeking asylum in the UK, including children.