Alice Cuddy & Swaminathan Natarajan,BBC Information
BBCA bunch of migrants had been transferred to Rwanda from a distant UK territory by the British authorities over a 12 months in the past. They are saying they really feel remoted and unsafe – with one describing the African nation as an “open jail”.
With political events divided over the federal government’s controversial plan to ship asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda, the BBC has travelled to the African state to talk to 4 of the migrants already there – albeit beneath a separate settlement – about their expertise within the nation.
The small group arrived from Diego Garcia, an island within the Indian Ocean. They are saying their advanced medical wants, in some instances as the results of previous rape and torture, are usually not being met in Rwanda.
Every of them receives the equal of $50 (£39) every week for meals and different necessities, however beneath the phrases of their keep – agreed by the UK and Rwandan governments – they aren’t permitted to work.
All 4 say they’ve confronted harassment and undesirable sexual advances on the road. They are saying they’re, in impact, “self-imprisoned” – too scared to exit – whereas they await the UK to search out someplace everlasting for them to stay.
The group – all Sri Lankan Tamils – had been transferred to Rwanda for pressing medical care after suicide makes an attempt. They’re now out of navy hospital and residing in two flats on the outskirts of the capital, Kigali, paid for by British authorities.
Their authorized standing in Rwanda is just not the identical as it will be for asylum seekers flown there from the UK – however a lawyer representing two of the 4 says their “detrimental experiences do elevate critical issues” about Rwanda’s means to supply a secure haven for “very susceptible refugees”.
A senior Rwandan official advised the BBC she had “full religion” in her nation’s medical system and the migrants’ issues about private security weren’t shared by others. “We have a thriving overseas inhabitants right here,” she added.
To guard their identities, migrants’ names have been modified
Not one of the 4 tried to enter the UK – as an alternative they filed asylum claims on Diego Garcia, which is used as a secretive UK-US navy base.
They had been amongst dozens of individuals to reach on the island in October 2021 – previously reported by the BBC. They mentioned that they had been fleeing persecution and making an attempt to sail to Canada to say asylum.
The 4 we met in Rwanda mentioned that they had been victims of torture and sexual violence of their dwelling international locations – some due to previous hyperlinks with the Tamil Tiger rebels, who had been defeated in Sri Lanka’s civil battle 15 years in the past.
HandoutDown a quiet highway, in a two-bedroom residence, Azhagu says he has been identified with extreme post-traumatic stress dysfunction, and uncertainty about his future and the isolation are making issues worse.
“We aren’t getting correct medical therapy. We’ve got psychological well being points,” says the 23-year-old. “Every time we go and inform the docs about our issues they can not assist us.”
Rwandan medical workers have shouted at him, he alleges, and on one event after self-harming, he says he was threatened with arrest and advised to return to Diego Garcia.
Mayur, 26, who shares the residence, says he has given up on counselling. He says he would not get correct medication and doesn’t get to have “a very good dialog”. “That’s why I don’t wish to go to the hospital,” he provides.
Lawyer Tom Brief, from UK agency Leigh Day, says an unbiased knowledgeable evaluation discovered “every of our purchasers has advanced medical wants which aren’t being met in Rwanda”.
We approached the navy hospital the place all of the Tamils have been receiving therapy, however we had been referred to the Rwandan authorities.
The highest Rwandan official accountable for the deal to switch asylum seekers from the UK, Doris Uwicyeza Picard, defended her nation’s medical system – including the migrants had been being handled “to the very best of our means”.
Three of the migrants – the 2 younger males and a girl, Lakshani – have had their claims for worldwide safety authorized by British Indian Ocean Territory (Biot) administration, which runs Diego Garcia. The United Nations and attorneys representing the group say this, in impact, provides them refugee standing. The fourth within the group – Lakshani’s father, Khartik – has been permitted to accompany his daughter.
It means the group can’t be returned to Sri Lanka, however the UK has mentioned it won’t take them in. The Conservative authorities advised the BBC final 12 months that Biot “can’t be a backdoor to the UK”.
Whereas Biot falls beneath British sovereignty, it’s described as “constitutionally distinct”.
The group in Rwanda confirmed us authorized paperwork, WhatsApp messages, emails and letters that they had written over the previous 12 months to British officers, together with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, asking to be moved.
“I don’t know what number of extra years we should stay as stateless prisoners of the British authorities with out freedom,” one message mentioned.
The 4 additionally advised us that harassment had left them frightened to depart their properties.
In Lakshani’s residence, a gray curtain is pulled throughout the barred home windows – shutting the room off from the skin world.
“We don’t go outdoors. We’re all the time scared,” the 23-year-old advised us after we visited her and Khartik, 47. “I don’t have any ladies right here. No pals.”
Each say there have been various tried break-ins at their residence. They present us movies that seem to indicate intruders being caught by neighbours.
In addition they recalled one incident on a close-by avenue, when, they are saying, a bunch of males had separated them and tried to the touch Lakshani whereas utilizing “very inappropriate phrases”.
The expertise, and others prefer it, had been triggering for the pair, they mentioned. Lakshani says she was beforehand sexually assaulted each in Sri Lanka and on Diego Garcia.
Azhagu advised us he and Mayur had additionally been propositioned on the street. “Strangers got here and requested ‘can I’ve intercourse with you?’ Folks had been laughing. We ran to the hospital.”
They each reported their issues to Crown Brokers, a non-profit worldwide growth firm that works with the UK authorities and serves because the migrants’ predominant level of contact in Rwanda.
All 4 advised us Crown Brokers had not taken their complaints critically.
“They requested me: ‘Why are you going out when you already know you’ll get into hassle?’” says Azhagu, recalling one of many conversations with the corporate. “I requested them: ‘Why are you conserving us right here when you already know there may be hassle?’ They didn’t reply.”
Crown Brokers didn’t reply to particular allegations when approached for remark by the BBC.
Attorneys representing the group mentioned that they had raised a number of incidents of avenue harassment and break-ins with Biot officers, who had not “substantively responded”.
The Biot administration didn’t reply to requests for remark.
The 4 advised us that they had not approached Rwandan police for assist. All of them mentioned they distrusted uniformed regulation enforcement primarily based on previous experiences of abuse.
The senior Rwandan official, Ms Picard, mentioned she was “unsure how we will help if the nationwide authorities haven’t been approached”.
“[The migrants’] issues about their security are usually not shared by anyone. Not by Rwandans, not residents,” she advised the BBC. “It breaks my coronary heart to listen to that any person might not really feel secure on this nation, particularly after we’ve labored very laborious to make this nation secure for everybody.”
The UK authorities’s overseas journey recommendation says crime ranges are comparatively low in Rwanda, however there are instances of housebreaking, theft, bag-snatching and mugging in Kigali.
The Tamils acknowledged they’ve had optimistic interactions in Rwanda however say the detrimental experiences have compounded previous trauma and left them frightened.
Lakshani and Khartik mentioned their residing scenario in Rwanda was an enchancment from the Diego Garcia camp, the place that they had slept in tents in a rat-infested camp, had restricted cellphone entry, and couldn’t prepare dinner their very own meals.
There’s a fifth Tamil who stays in Rwanda after additionally being flown from Diego Garcia following a suicide try. He’s nonetheless pursuing a declare for worldwide safety. The BBC has spoken to him on the cellphone, as he’s at present within the navy hospital and never allowed to depart.
The BBC has seen a letter formally discharging him – saying he needs to be handled as an outpatient. He says he’s being held in opposition to his will after refusing to return to Diego Garcia. His lawyer has known as on Biot to safe an answer for him.
The 4 migrants we met have been advised that, if they don’t want to stay in Rwanda, they’ll return to the Diego Garcia camp till being resettled in a “secure third nation”.
The Overseas Workplace didn’t reply to BBC questions on whether or not Rwanda was being thought-about as a “secure third nation” to completely resettle the group.
After we requested the migrants concerning the British authorities’s plan to make use of Rwanda to course of and home some asylum seekers from the UK, all mentioned that they had issues. “These refugees will endure the identical difficulties and hardship we face,” one mentioned.
Leigh Day lawyer Tom Brief mentioned his two purchasers in Rwanda had been left by the UK authorities with no certainty and in a “scenario of perennial purgatory”. Courtroom paperwork, lodged in London, argue the migrants’ therapy in Rwanda, and on Diego Garcia, “quantities to merciless, inhuman or degrading therapy opposite to worldwide regulation”.
Rwandan official Ms Picard mentioned there was “no similarity” between the group of Tamils and those that might transfer from the UK – who would, she mentioned, be “processed and built-in into our society”.
Ms Picard mentioned her nation was “all the time open” to having conversations about settling the Diego Garcia group completely, and that if that occurred, they’d be “supplied with all of the protections and ensures and the mixing wants they’d have”.
However “proper now they’re being handled as medical evacuees who want medical therapy”, she mentioned.
No cash was given to Rwanda to soak up and home the migrants from Diego Garcia, mentioned Ms Picard, and the “solely hyperlink” with the UK-Rwanda asylum deal was that the 2 international locations had been “very robust companions”.
The Overseas Workplace has declined BBC requests to offer particulars of the Diego Garcia association. The deal was agreed utilizing unsigned diplomatic notes written within the third particular person – often known as “notes verbales” – despatched between the British Embassy in Kigali and the Rwandan authorities. The Overseas Workplace advised us that releasing the data beneath a Freedom of Info request would “prejudice the relations” between the 2 international locations.
Neither the Conservatives nor Labour would touch upon the destiny of the Diego Garcia migrants in Rwanda or what they’d search to do with them in the event that they win the election.
Each events have pledged to deliver web migration down, however Labour has mentioned it will scrap the Conservatives’ plan to fly some asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda.
Mr Sunak has made delivering the Rwanda plan a key precedence of his premiership, arguing it’ll deter folks from crossing the English Channel in small boats.
Labour has described the scheme – which has already value taxpayers £310m – as a “con from begin to end”.
In an announcement, the Liberal Democrats described the instances of Tamils in Rwanda as “deeply regarding” and mentioned they wanted to be “correctly investigated”.
The Conservatives’ coverage to ship asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda, they added, was ”immoral, unworkable and extremely costly [for] taxpayers”.
The Inexperienced Social gathering co-leader Carla Denyer has described the Rwanda plan as “punitive” and “inhumane” – including that the way in which to cease folks risking their lives in small boats was to offer “secure and authorized routes” for them to use for asylum from abroad.
Reform UK didn’t reply to requests for remark. In its draft coverage doc, the get together says it will use British Abroad Territories to quickly course of claims of asylum seekers arriving by way of secure international locations.
The UN refugee company has known as on the UK to “safe options” for the group in Rwanda, and about 60 asylum seekers nonetheless on Diego Garcia, in keeping with its “worldwide obligations”.
Whereas they wait, the migrants proceed to dream of a future elsewhere.
“We marvel if we needs to be grateful to Britain for saving our lives after we arrived at Diego Garcia, or whether or not we should always get indignant with them for placing our lives in limbo,” Mayur says.
