'Many Rwandans disapprove of the deal – the country's human rights record is appalling'

Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta and UK Home Secretary James Cleverly

(Image credit: Cyrile Ndegeya/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza in The Guardian
Adrian Pabst in The New Statesman
The National editorial board
Michael Deacon in The Telegraph

published 12 December 2023

The new 'Rwanda deal' was a shock to Rwandans. We know this is no place for asylum seekers

Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza in The Guardian

Britain's Rwanda migrant deal "should be opposed on the basis of the facts", says the former Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza in The Guardian. Human rights in Rwanda are "appalling", meaning no migrant will get a "real solution" here. Many Rwandans "disapprove of the deal" but "fear of the authorities" means they will not speak out. Consequently, efforts to transfer migrants "must be stopped" until Britain "has supported the country to improve".

Adrian Pabst in The New Statesman

After "millions of working-class voters abandoned Labour for the Tories" in 2019, it appeared to mark a "realignment of British politics", writes Adrian Pabst in The New Statesman. But it was a "false dawn". As a general election looms again, Labour must seize the opportunity to "put clear blue water between its politics and that of the government", advocating for "social moderation and economic transformation" if it hopes to win.

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The National editorial board

Ahead of a UN ceasefire vote, the international community is "working diligently to not only end the war but also to help Gaza's suffering civilians", says The National's editorial board. However, "the longer this conflict continues, the harder it will be" to bring relief to Gazans. "The time has long passed for all sides to reverse out of this dead end." But with help, the war can end. "The time to accept it is now."

"Have I Got News for You" was once the "sharpest satire on TV", writes Michael Deacon in The Telegraph, but "for over 20 years now, the show has been almost unalleviated rubbish". Satire should "afflict the comfortable", but the programme now "flatters the comfortable", namely "the type of liberal-left graduate professionals who all share exactly the same opinion of Boris Johnson, as well as of Brexit, Rwanda, Trump and just about everything else".

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