At a meeting of asylum seekers in Derby, Rwanda was the main topic of conversation.
Among the large group of mostly men, there are people who’ve been warned they’re being considered for removal.
Hamzeh, 34, from Iran, arrived by small boat in December 2022.
He’s received a letter from the Home Office telling him it has evidence that before he claimed asylum he was in France, adding that it may ask Rwanda whether it would admit him.
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Through a translator he explains that he can’t stop thinking about it and doesn’t know what to do.
He says his wife back home has warned him if he does get sent to Rwanda he won’t see her or their two-year-old child again.
Fahed claims he was tortured in Sudan before fleeing to the UK
Fahed, 30, arrived in the UK by small boat last July. He claims he was tortured in Sudan.
He says the asylum seekers he shares a house with are “losing sleep” over being sent to Rwanda.
“Before I came to the UK if you’d said they’d send me to Rwanda I’d never come here,” he says, adding: “Rwanda is not a safe country.”
Fatima came to the UK on a small boat in June last year
Fatima, 26, doesn’t regret coming to the UK, however. She came on a small boat in June last year.
She says she feared being killed by the Taliban back home in Afghanistan because she had worked with the Americans.
The asylum seeker meeting in Derby
She becomes tearful at the thought of now being sent to Rwanda.
“It’s not fair, especially for someone who came from Afghanistan,” she says.
Masoud says the Home Office says he could be considered for removal to Rwanda
Masoud, 34, from Iran, reveals an email he’s had from the Home Office confirming he too could be considered for being sent to Rwanda.
He says his advice to other asylum seekers would now be “don’t come to the UK”.
But while his words could be seized on by the government as evidence the Rwanda plan will work as a deterrent, the views of people a short drive away in Derby city centre reveal support for the policy is by no means universal, with many expressing concerns.
Pete, 62
“There’s plenty of people on the streets here that we need to, you know, look after and put our own country first,” says Pete, 62.
But Michael, who’s also in his sixties, describes the plan as a “complete waste of money”, arguing migrants should be “sent straight back to France”.
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He adds that he believes the government “ain’t got a clue”, before saying “Labour are no better” and finishes: “I’d vote Reform but that’s a waste of time as well.”
“I’m not sure it’s really the best idea,” one young woman says of the policy. “They’re asylum seekers, they need the asylum,” she adds.
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And Sean, 44, says he believes the Rwanda plan is “ludicrous”.
“I think the government’s entire immigration policy is awful,” he adds.
“Both the amount of people that are allowed to come into the country, particularly undocumented, but then in the way that they’re treated when they are. So I don’t think we’re very humane… so I think in both aspects it’s awful.”
