The British Foreign Office met with representatives of Armenia, Côte d’Ivoire, Costa Rica, and Botswana to negotiate a separate agreement between the UK.
The Times reports that Rwanda is processing asylum claims for refugees there. British Foreign Office.
“The UK has entered into negotiations with Armenia, Cote d’Ivoire, Costa Rica, and Botswana to replicate the migrant deportation scheme to Rwanda,” the statement said.
The details reveal that countries may be interested in repeating the Rwandan project about the British government’s work over the past 18 months. Working with these four countries, Britain needs priority attention.
The report also revealed that cooperation with countries such as Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Brazil, and Colombia was considered, but according to the British authorities they were less interested in the deal, and Morocco, Tunisia, Namibia, and Gambia “categorically refused”.
The reserve list of countries that Britain intends to turn to if it cannot reach an agreement with the four previously named countries includes Cape Verde, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Angola, and Sierra Leone.
Progress in negotiations with Armenia, Ivory Coast, Costa Rica, and Botswana has stalled due to ongoing problems with the Rwandan agreement, but the government hopes talks will resume once the Rwandan scheme is operational.
The Guardian newspaper reported that the UK’s House of Lords has voted on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s legislation to deport refugees in Rwanda while their asylum claims are being considered, and that adoption of the bill will be postponed until April.
Last January, the House of Commons passed the final reading on a bill to deport refugees to Rwanda despite serious divisions among MPs. While their asylum claims are pending. The text must now be considered by the House of Lords.
Many conservatives previously advocated tightening the bill and refused to support the existing version of the document. This led to a split among the Tories, with Western media reporting that British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was facing the worst “rebellion” of his time in office.
November 2023, the UK Supreme Court finally ruled that the British authorities’ plans to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda were illegal.
Sunak has since announced his intention to introduce new “emergency legislation” to ensure plans to deport illegal immigrants cannot be blocked again.
Later in December, British Home Secretary James Cleverley signed a new deportation agreement with the Rwandan side.
