Euroviews. People seeking safety deserve compassion. But this Rwanda Bill is cruel and inhumane

We know what it’s like to have to leave your home against your will and at short notice. To travel to a new country and try to rebuild your life. 

And we know that the UK Government’s cruel "cash for humans" deal with Rwanda won’t stop people from taking dangerous journeys to seek safety in the UK.

We’re part of a group of people with lived experience of the UK immigration and asylum system — some of us are torture survivors, some of us refugees, and some of us are stuck in the backlog still trying to find safety. 

But we all had a life, family, role, and respect in our homelands, and we can tell you that people who are seeking safety deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.

The ugly reality of the government’s plan is that getting planes off to Rwanda means sending people thousands of miles away — people who’ve fled the worst horrors — to a country that’s not safe for them. 

And before any planes have even taken off, this policy has inflicted deep psychological harm on our community — knowing that at any moment, people like us could be sent to a country that has a recognised record of serious human rights abuses.

There's a very real difference between escaping persecution and being safe. Feeling safe is a prerequisite to being safe as it allows you to rebuild your life, move on from traumatic experiences, and recover. But this policy is making everything so much harder.

And it’s not just the fear of being sent to Rwanda that can have such a devastating impact, but the hanging in limbo that comes with it. 

People who’ve been served "notices of intent" to remove them to Rwanda have no idea what’s going to happen to them, or when. This creates a sense of uncertainty that will jeopardise people’s well-being and will cause