Colonial UK and France ramp up racist migrant rhetoric with Rwanda plan and detention centres

Once again, the violence of colonial ‘fortress’ Europe is on full display as the UK ramps up its racist refugee policies. Meanwhile, across the Channel, a new report has exposed France’s abusive migrant detention regime.

Rwanda plan: Tories set their immoral scheme in motion

The UK government has begun its appalling assault on migrants living across the country.

On Monday 29 April, the Home Office launched a spate of detentions. As the Guardian reported:

Detainees will be immediately transferred to detention centres, which have already been prepared for the operation, and held until they are put on planes to Rwanda. Some will be put on the first flight due to take off this summer.

Now, the government has confirmed that it has detained a number of these migrants ready for deportation.

A Supreme Court ruling last year that ruled that sending migrants to Rwanda in this way would be illegal because it:

would expose them to a real risk of ill-treatment

Moreover, numerous rights groups, the UN Refugee Agency, and the UN’s human rights office have slammed the government’s scheme. In February, UN human rights chief Volker Türk issued a scathing statement on the plan, saying that:

It is deeply concerning to carve out one group of people, or people in one particular situation, from the equal protection of the law – this is antithetical to even-handed justice, available and accessible to all, without discrimination.

Immigration tyrannising migrants

Naturally however, this hasn’t stopped the racist Tory government from ramming it through parliament. On 22 April the House of Commons passed the abhorrent new law which greenlights the Tory’s flagship asylum policy.

So, following this, a new Home Office document has now revealed that the government plans to deport 5,700 migrants to Rwanda this year.

Specifically, it detailed that Rwanda has “in principle” agreed to accept 5,700 migrants already in the UK.

Under the government’s new plans, it can deem asylum claims inadmissible for migrants who arrived in the UK between January 2022 and June last year.

So of course, it has already started its foul campaign tyrannising migrants.

Calling it “another major milestone” in the Rwanda plan, the ministry released photographs and a video of immigration enforcement officers detaining several migrants at different residences.

Violence in France’s detention centres

Meanwhile, across the Channel, the violent racist architecture of colonial borderisation has also been in full swing.

A new report by migrant rights groups including SOS Solidarity and France Terre d’Asile (“France Land of Asylum”) has revealed that migrant detention in France is also on the rise. Worse still, the report documented a rise in violence towards migrants inside these detention facilities.

Specifically, it found that France had incarcerated more undocumented migrants in detention centres in 2023 than in 2022.

French authorities held 46,955 migrants in the detention centres across the country and in overseas territories in 2023. This was compared to 43,565 the previous year.

In mainland France, the large majority were men, 5% were women and 87 individuals were children accompanied by their parents. More than 120 said they were under-18 but French authorities had declared them to be adults. Most migrants were Algerian, Tunisian and Moroccan, in that order.

On average detention centres held them 28.5 days out of a maximum allowed of 90 days. Notably, this was a week longer than the previous year. Given this, the report noted how the incarceration had impacted the mental health of the detainees. Detention had sometimes led to suicide attempts, self-mutilation, tensions and violent incidents with people working with them.

Crucially, the report noted:

Never have our associations witnessed so many violent acts as in 2023

While some detainees sometimes clashed with others held with them, the report also identified police violence towards migrants.

For example, at one centre in the Paris region, more than 40 migrants officially complained of:

physical violence, threats or insults of racist or homophobic character, (and) sexual assaults

Notably, this violence was specifically from police inside the facility.

Trash ‘deterrent’ and ‘detention’ rhetoric

Predictably, both colonial governments have bandied about bullsh*t about ‘detention’ and ‘deterrent’.

The Tories xenophobia-fueled argument is that the threat of being deported to Rwanda will deter tens of thousands of annual cross-Channel arrivals.

Of course, this isn’t what the official statistics show. Instead, arrivals have increased by more than a quarter in the first third of the year compared to the same period in 2023.

Similarly, France has held up its detention scheme as a major pillar of its deportation plans.

However, the nonprofit report found that of those held in detention centres, it had expelled 15% fewer detainees from the country last year compared to 2022, despite an increase in deportations overall.

Ultimately, it’s all bluster and demonstrates the dangerous end point of scapegoat politics. People seeking safety from persecution, poverty, and violence should be welcomed into our communities. Instead, vile governments continue their immoral, racist colonial project without a shred of conscience.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

Feature image via Wikimedia/Youtube/the Canary