We want our governments to be creative in solving intractable problems. But the new British policy of sending asylum seekers 4,000 miles away to Rwanda doesn’t count as the “innovative” answer to people-smuggling that Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel claim.
Patel has faced constant criticism over her failure to tackle the problem of migrants crossing the English Channel. She announced a “pushback” policy last year to forcibly turn back dinghies carrying migrants — the final, dangerous leg of harrowing journeys for most of them. It proved ineffective and was shot down by Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights. The deaths of 27 migrants in one tragically failed crossing last year laid bare the broader failings of the government’s policy.
