Tory Minister Chris Philp asks if Congo and Rwanda are different countries on live TV
On Thursday 25 April 2024, Chris Philp, the UK’s Policing Minister was being grilled over the Conservative government’s controversial deportation policy on BBC Question Time.
In case you are unaware, the Rwanda scheme is a Tory-led bill that is intended to curb illegal immigration into the UK. As such, it plans to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda from now on, in order to have their asylum claims processed there.
If successful, they can be allowed to stay in Rwanda or seek asylum in another country. However, they would not be able to apply to return to the UK.
The bill is incredibly controversial, with the UK Supreme Court unanimously finding the government’s policy unlawful, noting that Rwanda cannot currently be considered a safe country for migrants. Further, the Council of Europe’s human rights watchdog condemned the scheme, headed up by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, highlighting that it raises “major issues about the human rights of asylum seekers and the rule of law.”
With all of this in mind, let’s take a look at what happened on Thursday. At one point during the programme, one of the audience members asked: “Had my family members come from Goma on a crossing right now, would they then be sent back to the country that they’re supposedly warring with?”
Philp, however, seemed unable to grasp that Goma was not in Rwanda, responding: “No, I think there’s an exclusion on people from Rwanda being sent to Rwanda.”
“They’re not from Rwanda, they’re from Congo,” the audience member replied, puzzled. Even more confused, the Conservative then went on to ask: “Well… Rwanda is a different country to Congo, isn’t it?”
The MP’s question was met with uncomfortable laughter and astonishment by the audience, with the politician obviously aware of his embarrassing blunder.
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“There is a clause in the legislation that says if somebody would suffer seriously irreversible harm by being sent somewhere they wouldn’t be sent,” Philp tried to clarify.
But the damage was already done. It seems like one of this country’s leaders is in desperate need of a geography lesson, next to a couple of classes in international law most of the Conservative government could definitely use.
As reported by The Guardian, a Home Office minister has told the government that there were going to be “inevitable” legal challenges to the Rwanda scheme, saying there were those who were “determined to do whatever it takes to try and stop this policy from working.”
In fact, the first deportation flight of asylum seekers to Rwanda was scrapped in June 2022, after a dramatic intervention from the European Court of Human Rights. It marked a lethal blowback to the centrepiece of Sunak’s ‘Stop the Boots’ agenda. The court also warned the UK that it will be in breach of human rights law if it ignores its court orders that were issued to stop the scheme.
