Africa-Press – Botswana. On Tuesday, the UK parliament’s upper house approved the legislation that allows the government to carry out a plan to send undocumented migrants to Rwanda, despite heavy criticism from the international and local communities.
Botswana’s Foreign Minister Lemogang Kwape revealed that his country rejected the British government’s proposition for Botswana to accept migrants who are being deported from the UK, the official said in an interview with a South African TV channel, Newzroom Afrika.
“We did not accede to their [UK’s] request […]. The British government does not want these people in their country, so they want to ferry them to a faraway country […] To receive unwanted immigrants from another country while we’re dealing with our own problems in the region would be unfair to Botswana,” he said.
He added that diplomatic channels were used by the UK’s minister for Africa and foreign secretary to make contact.
Although the bill had been consistently blocked by a series of court rulings and criticism from human rights advocates, the parliament approved it this week, and on Thursday, British King Charles III gave his consent to the adoption of the law, which means that the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill will now become law as Royal Assent is the final stage of the legislative process.
Notably, last week, the media reported, citing leaked papers, that the UK was holding negotiations with Cote d’Ivoire, Botswana, Costa Rica, and Armenia about sending there illegal migrants while Cape Verde, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Angola and Sierra Leone were reportedly added to a reserve list to be used in case an agreement could not be reached with other countries.
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