The government will send asylum seekers to Rwanda and everything about it is awful

In news we are still trying to get our head around, the government is going to send asylum seekers to Rwanda because, well, that’s the sort of thing this government does. Plus, anything to distract from Partygate, obviously.

Asylum seekers who cross the English Channel in small boats will be flown for processing to the east African country, where they will stay and, if necessary, ‘encouraged’ to start a new life for themselves.

The Rwandan government will be paid an initial £120m of taxpayers’ money to make it happen.

It’s a ‘world-class’ deal, apparently. Well of course it is!

Our world-first migration partnership with Rwanda will:

Deter dangerous and illegal journeys to the UK.
Give migrants the chance of a new life.
Set a new standard on asylum and resettlement.

The details: https://t.co/XlNHZqDgOs pic.twitter.com/MoD1a11QEf

— Priti Patel (@pritipatel) April 14, 2022

And if Priti Patel explaining the whole thing wasn’t bad enough …

Our new partnership with Rwanda shows we can no longer accept the status quo.

People are dying and the global migration crisis requires us to find new ways to work in partnership.

It will deal a major blow to the evil people smugglers.

This is what it means pic.twitter.com/J5RAynuGu7

— Priti Patel (@pritipatel) April 14, 2022

… they also did this.

Today I’ve signed a world-leading new partnership with Rwanda to break the people smugglers’ deadly business model and help us protect the genuinely vulnerable through safe and legal routes.

Part of our #NewPlanForImmigration. pic.twitter.com/pqJc7Dc4IJ

— Priti Patel (@pritipatel) April 14, 2022

We have no words. Fortunately, these people did.

These poor people whose circumstances are already beyond desperate, who have risked and lost pretty much everything to get this far are to be sent thousands of miles away to Rwanda. Nice touch. https://t.co/XwAYvlbpVC

— Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) April 14, 2022

This is something she’s actually keen to publicise proudly… what kind of people are running my country? https://t.co/z7A7nogfHB

— Mike Galsworthy 🇺🇦 (@mikegalsworthy) April 13, 2022

I don’t think I’ve ever felt so bleak to my bones https://t.co/Am4n9PycgS

— Armando Iannucci (@Aiannucci) April 14, 2022

In case you’re wondering, we’ve reached the “try to distract people by talking about asylum seekers” stage of a Johnson scandal. A couple of days ahead of schedule by my reckoning. Attacking the BBC usually comes next…

— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) April 14, 2022

That doesn’t even make sense. How on Earth can anything so backwards & gut-churning be claimed as “world-leading”? https://t.co/YHWLGGXzo8

— Mike Galsworthy 🇺🇦 (@mikegalsworthy) April 14, 2022

Don't know why but today I found myself thinking of Nazi Germany's plan to resettle the Jews of Europe to Madagascar.

— Jay Rayner (@jayrayner1) April 14, 2022

Something particularly dystopian about the corporate aesthetics https://t.co/q6BB2h34UH

— Will Davies (@davies_will) April 14, 2022

No no, you see there are ‘Ukrainians’ and there are ‘asylum seekers’. pic.twitter.com/Bu7eoTFQOh

— Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) April 14, 2022

Everything about this policy is grotesque, but this graphic designed like you’re promoting a new ITV3 dating reality show somehow makes it just that little bit extra ghoulish https://t.co/gmt2YkfqYv

— tom jamieson (@jamiesont) April 14, 2022

10.

Johnson’s broken the law and more cases are being processed.

Let’s offshore him in Rwanda ahead of a decision.

— Kevin Maguire (@Kevin_Maguire) April 14, 2022

11.

Jarring that the graphic for a policy of detention camps looks like a 90 minute Netflix movie https://t.co/TyMrTUcMq2

— hk (@HKesvani) April 14, 2022

12.

final thought is whether flying asylum seekers nearly 5,000 miles away to be processed is hugely compatible with all the rhetoric at COP26

— Jim Pickard (@PickardJE) April 13, 2022

Sky News presenter Kay Burley had a few questions about the new policy for Cabinet minister (Welsh secretary) Simon Hart and he was just as convincing as you’d expect him to be.

#KayBurley – Why Rwanda?

Simon Hart – This has the potential to be a really humane step forward#KayBurley – The president of Rwanda has been accused of human rights abuses… this country oversaw genocide of a milion people.. in my son’s life time?#BBCBreakfast pic.twitter.com/FZGFigbhZf

— Haggis_UK (@Haggis_UK) April 14, 2022