British Home Secretary Priti Patel (L) addresses a press conference with Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta (R) during a signing ceremony regarding a migration and economic development partnership between the UK and Rwanda in Kigali, Rwanda. | EUGENE UWIMANA

TW
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I had to pinch myself the other-day when I read that Britain was planning to send asylum seekers to Africa. I thought it was a late April Fools joke in very bad taste. But no Prime Minister Boris Johnson is serious. If you are picked-up trying to cross the Channel illegally you get a one-way ticket to Rwanda courtesy of the British government. This from a country which was once known for its fairplay. What worries me is that a sizeable section of the British public appears to support the move, or at least according to one poll in a pro-Johnson newspaper.

Apart from the outrageous element of this plan there is the sheer cost of the whole operation. We all know that Boris Johnson´s government is pretty useless but this plan will cost a small fortune, and that is money which Britain doesn´t have. I remember reading one radical party in Britain (of the far right) had a plan to send asylum seekers to South Georgia but this was dismissed.

Now it is Rwanda. But don´t you find the whole timing of this announcement rather odd. Johnson and other senior members of his government were under pressure to resign over the “partygate” scandal but within hours the Rwanda operation is announced and the incident is quietly forgotten. Not only does this plan send out all the wrong messages about Britain it also shows that the Conservative Party is moving dangerously to the right. Many Tory Prime Ministers often say that they want to put the Great back into Britain...with the Johnson government it is a question of Great shame.