By Ebi Kesiena
The former head of the British army has attacked the government’s plan to send migrants who arrived on small boats to Rwanda saying the country is still living under the “shadow of genocide”.
According to General Sir Richard Dannatt Rwanda holds a “dark history” as he told The Independent that the country is not the kind of destination to which people fleeing conflicts should be sent.
In an extraordinary intervention, the former army chief also accused home secretary Suella Braverman of “continuing to run down the remaining political capital” of Rishi Sunak’s administration with the “unpopular” policy.
“The government is entitled to bear down on people coming on small boats who are simply seeking a better life,” Lord Dannatt said on the government’s desired crackdown on Channel arrivals.
But he warned: “Whether sending people to Rwanda is the right policy, I have my doubts. It seems to be aimed at deterring others from coming, because there is a strong sanction against them. I’m uncomfortable with it.”
Dannatt, who visited Rwanda as chief of the general staff in 2009, sits on the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on war crimes, which looks into those who participated in the Rwandan genocide. He argued that it is unwise to send people from all over the world to a nation still recovering from the political violence that afflicted it in the 1990s.
