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Rwanda Bill: Most Brits think government does not care about their rights [1]
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Date: 2023-12
Only a third of Brits believe the government cares about their human rights, openDemocracy can reveal.
The news comes as the government attempts to force through its plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, using “dangerous and reckless” legislation that will hand ministers powers to disregard parts of the Human Rights Act.
Polling commissioned by rights organisation Liberty and shared exclusively with this website found that just 31% of people agree or strongly agree that the government “cares about my rights and freedoms”.
Liberty’s director, Akiko Hart, told openDemocracy that the results are unsurprising given the nature of the Safety of Rwanda Bill, which MPs will vote on tomorrow.
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The bill states that the African nation is “conclusively” safe for asylum seekers, bans judges or courts from ever saying otherwise and gives ministers powers to disregard key sections of human rights laws.
It was announced last week, after the Supreme Court blocked the government’s initial plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing and potential resettlement – ruling it unlawful and deeply flawed.
Tory ministers are at war over the policy, with those on the hard right of the party claiming the UK must withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights for it to succeed.
Former immigration minister Robert Jenrick resigned last week saying the latest bill “does not go far enough”.
Hart said: “While Westminster and voters are distracted by the drama of the Conservative tearing themselves apart over this [bill] – what’s actually happening is that the government is ripping apart our human rights protections.
“We all have human rights, or none of us do. If people in power take rights away from one group of people, the underpinning of all of these human rights frameworks falls apart.”
Some 81% of respondents to Liberty’s poll, carried out by nfpResearch, said everyone’s rights and freedoms should be protected equally.
Caitlin Boswell, the policy and advocacy manager at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), told openDemocracy that the polling suggests the majority of Brits would empathise with asylum seekers.
“People in this country are a lot more compassionate than the tabloids or government would like us to think,” she said.
Boswell said it is important to keep reminding people of the human impact of the Rwanda policy. The JCWI works with countless clients, including trafficking and modern slavery survivors, whose lives are hanging in balance.
Mehdi*, a Kurdish Christian convert from Iran, is one such JCWI client.
He was told he would be deported to Rwanda days after he arrived in the UK 18 months ago, having crossed the Channel in a small boat and been intimidated by smugglers and kidnapped in Italy.
“It felt like death again to me,” he said of the Home Office letter which detailed his deportation.
When his lawyer told him about the Supreme Court ruling last week, Mehdi said: “I was so happy, I wanted to fly. After 19 months of a horrible situation, I feel like I am finally beginning a new life.”
But the government’s new policy could once again place him at risk of being sent to Rwanda.
Boswell said: “The latest Rwanda bill shows how increasingly desperate the government is – and detached from reality. A piece of paper cannot rule a country safe.”
Hart agreed, branding the Rwanda Bill “reckless and dangerous” and adding: “One thing not being talked about is that respect for the European Convention on Human Rights is fundamental to the Good Friday agreement which underpins peace in Northern Ireland – so that is also now at risk.”
*Name has been changed
Updated 11 December 2023: This article was amended to correct errors contained in the original polling data that Liberty had given openDemocracy. It was originally claimed that 29% of respondents agreed with the statement ‘The Government cares about my rights and freedoms’. In fact, the correct figure is 31%, while 28% responded that they either do not know or neither agree nor disagree.
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https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/rwanda-bill-liberty-polling-human-rights-government-doesnt-care/
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