Kigali: Boris Johnson has hit back at critics, including Charles, Prince of Wales, of his Australia-style plan to deport asylum seekers crossing the English Channel to Rwanda, saying they should keep an open mind.
The UK Prime Minister landed in Kigali with nothing but praise for the Rwandan President Paul Kagame who is accused of brutally repressing political opponents and operating a campaign of state-sponsored enforced disappearances.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (left) meets with Rwandan President Paul Kagame during a bilateral meeting in Rwanda.Credit:Getty
Critics have questioned Rwanda’s suitability to host the summit, as well as care for Britain’s unwanted asylum seekers, because of its human rights record.
Britain wants to mimic Australia’s offshoring solution to deal with unwanted asylum seeker who arrive by boat.
Because there are no international waters between England and France, Britain cannot turn boats back like Australia did with vessels voyaging from Indonesia.
So the UK has turned to Rwanda instead and asked the East African nation to take asylum seekers who journey by boat.
The first flight was barred by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which is not connected to the European Union, but the UK is determined to press ahead and is proposing to rip up the Human Rights Act and replace it with a bill of rights that would prevent future ECHR injunctions.
Johnson, who will hand over the Commonwealth chair-in-office on Friday, urged his critics to study Rwanda’s economic record instead, where poverty has declined from 77 per cent in 2001 to 55 per cent in 2017.
“I’m delighted that Prince Charles and everybody are here today to see a country that has undergone a complete transformation, or a very substantial transformation,” he said.
“People need to keep an open mind about the policy, the critics need to keep an open mind, a lot of people can see its obvious merits.
“And if I’m seeing the Prince tomorrow of course I’m going to make that point,” he said.
Prince Charles was reported to have called the UK’s plan to copy Australia’s offshore solution for asylum seekers to journey by boat “appalling”.
Clarence House has not denied the report. The monarch is expected to remain politically neutral.
Charles and Johnson are due to catch up for a “cup of tea” on Friday morning in Kigali.
Both Charles and Johnson have met Kagame in Kigali. Johnson praised Kagame’s “moral stance” on Ukraine, as well as the proposed migrant deportation plan, according to a spokesman.
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall speaks at the Violence Against Women and Girls event at the Kigali Convention Centre in Rwanda.Credit:Chris Jackson
In a speech at a violence against women and girls event, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall highlighted Kagame’s commitment to improving women’s rights, noting that Rwanda was ranked seventh in the world in terms of women’s rights and opportunities.
“On International Women’s Day earlier this year, I was profoundly touched by President Kagame’s powerful message on social media, which read, ‘Equality is a right, not a favour’,” Camilla said.
“So let us bear His Excellency’s words in mind as we focus on violence in the home against women and girls today and remember that we are seeking rights, not favours.”
In his first address ahead of the official Commonwealth Heads of Government summit, Johnson likened the grouping, often maligned as a disparate and redundant relic of the British Empire, as a fertiliser.
“What if there was a miracle fertiliser, a fertiliser of business that grew your business that expanded your profits and cut your costs by 21 per cent?” he told the Commonwealth Business Forum.
“There is such a fertiliser and I’ll tell you ingredients … it’s a common language, it’s a familiar sense of our legal and administrative systems, it’s a shared system of mutual trust between us and that system is called the Commonwealth.
“That fertiliser knocks 21 per cent off the cost of trade between Commonwealth members,” he said.
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