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Rwanda plan bad not because it’s expensive but because it’s inhumane, immoral

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2 years ago

May 16, 2024

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The main criticism of harmful immigration policies is that they are “too expensive.” The Rwanda plan is bad not because it is “expensive” or “unworkable”, but because it is inhumane and immoral,” a post on the Migrants’ Rights Network website said.

“The Bibby Stockholm or inhumane asylum accommodation are bad because they are immoral and harm migrants,” it added.

Ultimately, it said, policies like detention, deportation or offshoring plans like the Rwanda plan or inhumane accommodation like the Bibby Stockholm or putting migrants in disused military sites would still be wrong even if they were cheap or free.

Immigration policies like the outsourcing of asylum accommodation or border policing to private companies for million pound contracts, or forced offshoring of racialised people for a fee, clearly demonstrates how people from the Global South are still dehumanised as merchandise. Ultimately, these systems are put in place to maintain White supremacist control, isolation and containment (or ‘management’) of Black and Brown people. All under the guise of cost management and “being tough on immigration”.

We must stop defaulting to arguments based on cost. We cannot put a price on humanity or someone’s life. If we truly want to seek migrant justice, and justice for People of Colour, then we have to reframe our arguments.

Long explainer
The ‘cost’ of specific immigration policies often forms the basis of cross-spectrum political criticism. Critiques of the now infamous Rwanda Bill are a poignant example of this, with the main opposition resting on how expensive the scheme is. However, this argument demonstrates a broader issue with mainstream criticism of immigration policies.

The Rwanda plan is bad not because it is “expensive” or “unworkable”, but because it is inhumane and immoral. Similarly, the Bibby Stockholm or inhumane asylum accommodation are bad because they are immoral and harm migrants.

Criticism of recent immigration policies under the increasingly cruel hostile environment tends to centre around how much they cost. Despite the inhumane and isolating conditions onboard the Bibby Stockholm barge- which saw the death by suicide of Leonard Farruku in December 2023, the main opposition to the accommodation continuously focuses on the ‘cost to taxpayers’.

Criticism of the Rwanda Plan has taken on a similar focus. Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper MP, has focused on the cost as part of her criticism of the Government’s immigration plans. In December last year, she stated: “Hundreds of millions of pounds could now be £400 million, and I would like the immigration minister – whichever of the immigration ministers is winding up today – to explain whether in fact this is now a £400 million plan.”

The fixation on cost calls into question if this critique can ever truly go hand-in-hand with any moral argument. Fundamentally, we must consider the conditionality of the argument: if the Rwanda plan or other immigration policies were cheap or free, would that satisfy opposition to it? The answer is surely no because if these plans were not “expensive” then they would still be inherently cruel, immoral and wrong.

Capitalism and commodification of values
We can define capitalism as it actually exists in the world as an economic system that takes things which have a value but not price (humans, nature, ideas) and turns them into resources which can be owned and given a price which can then be bought and sold.

Capitalism has its origins in the enslavement and colonisation of indigenous people’s abroad and the violent enclosure of common land at home. This history has contributed to a deeply hierarchical international economic system. Today, governments and businesses in the Global North extract resources and protect their wealth from the Global South through a variety of mechanisms including debt, trade agreements, military power, tax havens, intellectual property and direct political intervention.

Increasingly diverse areas of life now justify their existence in terms of their contribution to the economy. One famous children’s charity justified a campaign to encourage dads to read to their children on the basis that improving literacy would increase GDP by 1.5 per cent by 2020. In 2014 the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a prominent economic institution, highlighted that mental health issues cost the UK around £70 billion every year.

Migration deals commodify racialised people
From the 17th century and beginnings of the transatlantic enslavement of people from Africa, Black and Brown people have been continuously treated as merchandise in a capitalist world. This laid the foundations for the racist norms that continue to persist in social, political and economic power structures in 2024.

In Capitalism and Slavery, published in 1944, Eric Williams, a young historian who later became the first Prime Minister of an independent Trinidad and Tobago, forcefully argued that slavery was central to the transition from feudalism to our modern economic system of capitalism.

The transatlantic enslavement trade also played a major role in the development of two central finance and insurance institutions in our modern economic systems. Donald E. Grant Jr demonstrates the links between many major financial and insurance institutions today including Lehman Brothers, Lloyd’s of London, Aetna Insurance, Barclays, JPMorgan Chase and the enslavement-driven cotton industry. Narratives and litigation records from the time demonstrate how these organisations monetised the African enslavement trade to leverage resources for the building of their personal empires and global brands.

Philip Roscoe describes that the ‘obscene novelty of the slavers’ banking system was that this financial value was secured on human bodies’. He also relates the story of the captain of the slave ship Zong. On a voyage in 1781 he realised he was unlikely to land his cargo of sickening and malnourished slaves, so he ordered 133 people to be thrown overboard. The perverse legal logic was that if part of the cargo had to be jettisoned to save the ship, it would be covered by the insurance. Insurance made the value of this human capital real and bankable.

Not only have financial and insurance companies which exist today benefited economically from enslavement as outlined above. Important finance and insurance practices were developed in this period which are widely used today. Slavery has been central to US, European and global economic development, not separate or opposed to it.

Immigration policies like the outsourcing of asylum accommodation or border policing to private companies for million pound contracts, or forced offshoring of racialised people for a fee, clearly demonstrates how people from the Global South are still dehumanised as merchandise. This concept can also be seen in the for-profit private prison system and mass incarceration of People of Colour. Whether it’s prisons or the immigration system, the State and private companies view racialised people as something to be dealt with or a bargaining tool for economic gain.

Furthermore, the existence and growth of the asylum accommodation estate requires a similar analysis of how states view racialised migrants. Asylum accommodation has been a vocal point of debates on migration in the UK in the last few years. The Government has promoted ideas of turning barges or disused military bases into asylum accommodation after criticism that hotels were ‘costing too much’. However, plans to move asylum seekers to isolated and fortified accommodation demonstrates something more sinister, and we can learn a huge amount from opposition to the prison industrial complex. Ultimately, these systems are put in place to maintain White supremacist control, isolation and containment (or ‘management’) of Black and Brown people. All under the guise of cost management and “being tough on immigration”.

By focusing the argument on cost, opposition merely continues to reinforce this racist argument that reduces People of Colour from the Global South as goods to be exchanged, rather than human beings at risk of harm. The ‘expensive’ argument continues to be the loudest critique, all while ‘pro-migration’ arguments call for higher net-migration quotas to fill employment gaps and carry out cheap labour.

Consistently leading arguments by focusing on the cost undermines any moral argument we seek to make. It puts a price on migrants’ lives and this continues the colonial tradition of reducing people from the Global South as a ‘problem’ to be managed or something to be exchanged for money. If we truly want to seek migrant justice, and justice for People of Colour, then we have to reframe our arguments.

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Features

UN appoints new senior leadership for UNHCR

Published

1 day ago

July 19, 2026

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The United Nations has announced a new set of senior appointments to the leadership of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), with Secretary-General António Guterres naming Tressa Rae Finerty as Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, Antón Leis García as Assistant High Commissioner for Operations, and Edem Wosornu as Assistant High Commissioner for Protection.

The appointments, announced on Saturday, are expected to take effect in the coming weeks.

The three officials will occupy the most senior positions within UNHCR, supporting the High Commissioner in leading the agency’s global response to the protection and assistance of refugees, stateless persons and other people forced to flee their homes.

Welcoming the appointments, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Barham Salih expressed confidence that the incoming officials would strengthen the agency’s response to the growing global displacement crisis.

“I warmly welcome these appointments and look forward to working closely with Tressa, Anton and Edem,” Salih said.

“Their leadership, experience and commitment will be invaluable as UNHCR responds to displacement challenges around the world. Together, we will work to continue strengthening protection, expanding opportunities for self-reliance and pursuing lasting solutions that help refugees rebuild their lives with dignity.”

Finerty, a career member of the U.S. Senior Foreign Service, currently serves as Chargé d’Affaires at the United States Mission to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva. She previously served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Geneva and Deputy Executive Secretary in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of State. Her diplomatic career has also included postings at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York and embassies in Malaysia, Iraq, Armenia and Thailand. In addition, she has taught refugee policy at New York University and Georgetown University.

Leis García currently heads the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), Spain’s development and humanitarian agency. He has previously held senior positions at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Office of the President of the Spanish Government, and international financial institutions including the African Development Bank and the World Bank Group.

Wosornu currently serves as Director of the Crisis Response Division at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and chairs the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Emergency Directors Group. She has held several senior headquarters and field positions within OCHA and began her United Nations career as an intern at UNHCR before working in the private legal sector in the United Kingdom.

The newly appointed officials will replace Kelly T. Clements, Deputy High Commissioner; Raouf Mazou, Assistant High Commissioner for Operations; and Ruvendrini Menikdiwela, Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, whose terms are coming to an end.

Paying tribute to the outgoing leaders, Salih praised their contributions to the agency’s humanitarian mission.

“The organization owes a profound debt of gratitude to Kelly, Raouf and Ruven for their exceptional service and dedication,” he said. “Their leadership has strengthened UNHCR’s ability to protect and assist millions of displaced and stateless people around the world.”

Features

Sixth batch of Nigerians stranded in South Africa return home

Published

7 days ago

July 13, 2026

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The final batch of 40 stranded Nigerians evacuated from South Africa has arrived at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos, bringing to a close the Federal Government’s evacuation exercise that returned a total of 1,174 citizens.

The returnees landed on Friday night aboard a chartered Air Peace flight, marking the sixth and final phase of the evacuation programme.

In a statement issued on Saturday, the Director of Media, Public Relations and Protocols of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), Abdur-Rahman Balogun, said the exercise was carried out through six flights operated by Air Peace and ValueJet.

According to the commission, the first five batches brought home 258, 266, 262, 282 and 66 Nigerians, while the final chartered Air Peace flight evacuated the remaining 40 stranded citizens.

Balogun said the returnees expressed appreciation to President Bola Tinubu for approving the evacuation from South Africa. They also thanked the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the Acting Nigerian Ambassador to South Africa, Temitope Alexander-Ajayi, and NiDCOM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, for facilitating their safe return.

The evacuees were received at the airport by NiDCOM officials, who also announced a series of support packages from government agencies, corporate organisations and individuals.

According to the statement, Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State approved a grant of N1 million for each returnee from the state. Telecommunications company MTN also donated free SIM packs with N50,000 worth of data and pledged to credit each returnee’s bank account with N100,000.

Officials from the Edo and Delta State governments similarly announced assistance for their indigenes among the evacuees.

The commission added that the JAAL Foundation pledged empowerment support for 50 female returnees, while the General Overseer of Omega Power Ministries Worldwide, Apostle Dr Chibuzor Gift Chinwe, was commended for providing free accommodation for about 52 returnees, skills acquisition opportunities for their families and free education for their children up to university level.

The returnees also acknowledged Pastor Bolaji Idowu of Harvesters Church for donating N100,000 each to 66 evacuees, while real estate firm Cruxstone provided financial support to the first batch of returnees.

Balogun said officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and other security agencies were present at the airport to receive and document the returnees.

“The returnees were full of gratitude for the donations, support and warm welcome received,” the statement said.

Features

EU Pact offers hope for better migration management and fairer asylum systems- IOM, UNHCR

Published

2 weeks ago

July 9, 2026

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The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, and the UN Migration Agency, IOM have welcomed the entry into force today of the European Union’s Pact on Migration and Asylum as an opportunity to move beyond crisis-driven responses and implement a more predictable, fair and effective approach to the issues across Europe.

EU Member States should seize this moment to strengthen migration management and refugee protection while advancing solidarity and responsibility-sharing in line with European values and international obligations, the agencies’ chiefs said.

“The Pact’s entry into full effect today is an important step toward a more predictable and coherent European migration system. What matters now is steady implementation over time that is effective, humane, sustainably resourced and grounded in cooperation,” said Amy Pope, Director General of the International Organization for Migration. “The priority is turning the reforms into practical results for States, communities, and people on the move.”

The Pact aims to make EU asylum systems more efficient and consistent, offering a structured framework for Member State cooperation. This can reduce backlogs while maintaining the quality of assessments, provide greater certainty for asylum-seekers, and enable refugees to begin rebuilding their lives and contributing to their communities sooner.

“This Pact is an important step in the right direction, advancing shared responsibility and more predictable, sustainable approaches across the European Union,” said Barham Salih, UN High Commissioner for Refugees. “UNHCR stands ready to support all Member States in strengthening asylum systems – ensuring access to protection for those in need, upholding human rights and dignity, and enabling safe, lawful and dignified returns for those not in need of international protection.”

IOM and UNHCR welcome the EU’s renewed focus on partnerships with all affected countries. Reducing irregular movements means addressing root causes, ensuring access to protection, tackling smuggling networks, and enabling safe, regular pathways. The organizations will continue to support route-based approaches that ensure policies deliver on protection, dignity and shared responsibility, while contributing to sustainable solutions that benefit both countries and communities along migration routes.

UNHCR and IOM welcome several key elements of the Pact, including earlier identification of people with specific needs, strengthened legal assistance, and new independent monitoring mechanisms at external borders. Returns of those with no legal right to stay must be both effective and humane. Alongside enforcement, they should ensure access to informed voluntary return, early case management, and reintegration support, working with countries of origin, transit and first asylum as part of a balanced approach that upholds dignity and fundamental rights.

These measures can help ensure that asylum processing and return procedures are faster and fairer, reducing uncertainty for asylum-seekers while strengthening public confidence in the migration and asylum system.

UNHCR and IOM stress that implementation will be the decisive test. Procedures must be carried out with adequate safeguards to ensure that no one is returned or transferred to a situation where they may face persecution, conflict or other forms of serious harm.