UK’s Rwanda asylum scheme the ‘opposite of the nature of God’: Archbishop of Canterbury

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Archbishop of Canterbury condemned the UK government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, labeling it as “the opposite of the nature of God” during his Easter sermon on Sunday. 

Reverend Justin Welby, the highest religious authority in the Church of England, used his sermon to criticize the scheme that was announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday to send refugees to the African nation.

Speaking at Canterbury Cathedral, the Archbishop said there are “serious ethical questions about sending asylum seekers overseas.” He added that the “principle must stand the judgment of God, and it cannot.”

Under the 120 million pound ($158 million) plan, single men deemed to have arrived illegally in the UK since 1 January may be sent to Rwanda, where their asylum claims will be processed. The Archbishop stated that it is the UK’s “national responsibility as a country formed by Christian values, because sub-contracting out our responsibilities, even to a country that seeks to do well like Rwanda, is the opposite of the nature of God who himself took responsibility for our failures.”

Numerous civil unions, rights groups, and political opposition parties in the UK condemned the Rwanda plan. 

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on Saturday also decried the plan, saying it “remains firmly opposed to arrangements that seek to transfer refugees and asylum seekers to third countries in the absence of sufficient safeguards and standards.” The agency also called on the UK and Rwanda to “re-think the plans.”

Johnson was mainly elected on promises to curb illegal immigration into the UK, but has instead witnessed record numbers of migrants making the English Channel crossing. During his speech near Dover on Thursday, he stated that anyone entering the UK illegally as well as those who have arrived illegally since January 1 may now be relocated to Rwanda."

He also announced that the UK navy would be taking over “operational command” from Britain’s border agency of the Channel. 

More than 28,000 people arrived in Britain having crossed the Channel from France in small boats in 2021, AFP reported. 

The plan could affect hundreds of Kurds seeking to make the perilous journey across the English Channel.  Thousands of people from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region left the country in 2021 for Europe. 

A boat carrying 33 migrants from different countries, including Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, capsized in the English Channel on November 24. One of the survivors told Rudaw English at the time that the incident took place in British territorial waters.