Immigration. Never without controversy, it has reached new levels of attention since the Home Secretary announced plans to process some immigrants in Rwanda.
Before digging into the weeds of this new policy, it is worth reminding readers of the three principle types of migrants.
Economic migrants are those seeking a new life with better prospects. This works both ways, with UK citizens emigrating, as well as immigrants coming here. We have a points based system that appraises the value to the UK of a prospective economic migrant. Secure the right number of points, and they are welcome.
Refugees fleeing from war, famine, or acts of God are given sanctuary at the first country of safety they reach. The UK is a world leader in this area, donating more (as a percentage of our economy) to Syrian refugee camps than any other country. And we help with earthquakes, famine, tsunamis, hurricanes and other problems through our international development budget.
Finally, asylum seekers are those who seek sanctuary in another country because their home country persecutes certain characteristics. It may be political opinion, sexuality, religion or any number of other identifiable traits. Again, the UK does well, not least offering potential sanctuary to hundreds of thousands Hong Kong based British National Overseas passport holders to whom we have offered asylum to should they want it.
The Rwanda policy has been created to tackle, specifically, the crises of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats. There are scant statistics on these migrants, but in the main they are young men, and they are all paying people smugglers thousands of Euros for a place in a boat. They are definitely not fleeing a war zone – France has been at peace since 1945. They may be asylum seekers, but again, France is not a country that oppresses minorities. And they may be economic migrants. But they are all victims of people smugglers.
The Rwanda policy is being portrayed as one where we are shipping people off to a third world country. We are not. Rwanda is a developing nation and migrants will be put up in student type accommodation.
But the intention of this policy is deterrence. We do not want anyone to pay money to people smugglers to risk their lives. If this policy works, numbers of migrants crossing the Channel will dwindle to none, and the number of migrants moved to Rwanda will be zero. But a lot of lives will be saved and we can continue our good work across the globe.