Britain’s Radical Plan to Tackle the Migrant Crisis Turns Into a Cautionary Tale

Wall Street Journal ^ | June 26, 2024 | Max Colchester

[george76]

The U.K. has spent millions on a plan to send migrants to live in Africa. It’s now tied up in logistical, political and legal issues..

Two years ago, the British government decided to spend big to outsource a migration problem.

To deter migrants seeking asylum from illegally entering the country, it announced a radical plan: Those smuggled on makeshift dinghies to British shores would be sent to Rwanda, a small country in central Africa, where they would remain. The U.K. government handed Rwanda ... $150 million down payment and told it to get ready to host thousands of potential refugees.

Shortly after, Hope Hostel, a neatly kept yellow-fronted hotel in the Rwandan capital of Kigali, was rented out with British taxpayer funds to accommodate the expected planeloads of asylum seekers. Hotel manager Ismael Bakina and his team of 40 have been keeping busy ever since, changing the sheets on 100 double beds weekly, trimming decorative pot shapes into the bushes that adorn the hotel’s entrance and mowing the lawn on its mini-soccer pitch.

But on a recent day the beds at Hope Hostel were untouched. The suggestion box at the reception desk sat empty. No one has yet come to stay. “We are still waiting,” ... Come as a guest, leave as a friend.”

No one may ever arrive. ... So far, it’s been a huge waste of money. Just two migrants have volunteered to go to Rwanda after being paid £3,000 by the British state. Meanwhile, record numbers of migrants are crossing the English Channel to Britain so far this year

...

At least 920,000 asked for asylum in the U.S. during its 2023 fiscal year, and 1.14 million did the same in Europe last year.

...

mostly male

[bobbo666]

A bit pot of dosh to skim.

Solution? Shoot holes in dinghys a mile off Froggie coast.

[irishjuggler]

” Just two migrants have volunteered to go to Rwanda after being paid £3,000 by the British state. “

This was a hilariously dumb plan. It’d be one thing to dump the migrants involuntarily in Rwanda. That might have worked. But what migrant in his right mind is going to *agree* to be shipped to a sh-thole like Rwanda for a lousy 3000 pounds ($3800)???

[Mr Radical]

Two years ago, the British government decided ... on a plan ... now tied up in logistical, political and legal issues ...

which only goes to show that the elected government doesn't run Britain - Britain is run by unelected and politically motivated 'civil servants': bureaucrats, judges and lawyers.

[Brian Griffin]

Create a new country on a remote Scottish island.

You be safe here.

[nonliberal]

Had Boris and Rishi sunk the boats, they wouldn’t have this problem.

[Albion Wilde]

bump