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Why is the UK-Rwanda asylum deal so controversial?

Courts in London rule that the UK government's first flight taking asylum seekers to Rwanda can go ahead on Tuesday, as planned. But not everyone is happy.

In April the UK government announced that they had signed a deal that would see asylum seekers to the UK processed instead in Rwanda, some 6,500km away.

This caused outrage, with rights groups and campaigners calling the deal cruel, saying the asylum seekers who come to the UK have already faced gruelling and treacherous journeys and shouldn’t be sent to another country for their papers to be processed.

The British government argued that the plan was designed to deter people-trafficking.

Rwanda said every single asylum seeker would be welcomed and get full protection under Rwandan law.

But days before the first flights were due to take off from the UK, charities supporting the migrants took the British government to the courts.

However they were unsuccessful as both the High Court and the Court of Appeal ruled that government's first flight taking asylum seekers to Rwanda can go ahead on June 14 as planned.

So with so much happening with this UK-Rwanda asylum deal, Alan Kasujja sets out to understand why this plan is so controversial.

Host: Alan Kasujja
Guests: Anne Soy – Â鶹Éç Africa Senior Correspondent and Daniel Kyereko, Lecturer on Migration at the University of York in the UK

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15 minutes

Podcast