The government has been accused of ’emboldening racists’ with its Rwanda deportation plan amid the rise of a grim new slur on social media.
Home Secretary Priti Patel, London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Labour MP David Lammy are among the public figures who have been told they should be removed from Britain and flown to the east African nation.
Sunder Katwala, who highlighted the issue in a thread on Twitter, said ‘send them to Rwanda’ was being used as an insult by both left and right wing commentators against people they disagreed with politically – including Gary Linkear and Nigel Farage.
But he said ethnic minorities were being disproportionally targeted with the racist abuse.
‘It’s really disappointing that in 2022 there’s a new lease of life to the racist “send them back” trope’, he told Metro.co.uk
‘Everyone in Britain who’s from an ethnic minority background knows that trope and it’s so disappointing it’s been given a new lease of life today.’
Mr Katwala, who runs think tank British Futures, said the government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda ‘clearly has emboldened racists and the most toxic form of the extreme far right’.
He accused ministers of inflaming the debate on asylum by attacking lawyers, campaigners and religious leaders who have spoken out against the controversial policy.
He wrote in his thread: ‘Unfortunately, one cost of this deliberate political decision to reheat and repolarise the asylum debate is that it has been taken by some racists as a form of permission to use Rwanda as a new form of racist abuse.
‘Given the racist use of this ‘send you to Rwanda’ trope, perhaps people might now desist using it as a satirical point against Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage, Gary Lineker or whoever you don’t like. I’m sure you could think of another thing to say to show you don’t like them.’
He said while Priti Patel can be criticised ‘for being the architect of this policy which has inspired this new racist trope,’ using it against her ‘is the worst way to do that’.
‘It’s worrying that people are using it about whoever they don’t like in politics,’ he told Metro.co.uk
‘There’s lots of ways people can articulate or voice their opposition but not by using that trope, we should not be legitimising it.’
Other people who have been targeted with the slur include GMB host Adil Ray, political activist Femi Oluwole and Imam Qari Asim.
Mr Ray highlighted the issue in April, saying: ‘I know I’m not alone here but over the past week “we should send you to Rwanda” has become the latest racist slur thrown at POC [people of colour]. Our crime? Not being white and standing up for those worse off than us. These racists are radicalised by our ministers, they know the consequences.’
Adam Bienkov, political editor at the Byline Times, pointed out that ‘even those of us who merely have foreign-sounding names are getting this’ in response to Mr Katwala’s thread.
Mr Katwaka said he had asked Twitter if the slur breaks its rules on abusive behaviour.
He said while the human cost of the policy falls directly on those being removed to Rwanda, a fresh wave of online racism was a ‘by product of the asylum debate in this country’.
The first flight to Rwanda is due to take off tonight after the Supreme Court threw out a last-ditch bid to stop it.
Just seven people are due to be on board following a string of legal challenges, with the journey reportedly costing the tax payer £500,000.
The policy has been widely condemned by charities, opposition MPs, Tories, lawyers and religious leaders. Prince Charles was also reported to have privately described the deportations as ‘appalling’.
Boris Johnson today acknowledged there had been criticism of the plan from ‘some slightly unexpected quarters’ but highlighted the legal profession as the main source of opposition.
Stepping up his attack on lawyers representing migrants, he suggested they were ‘abetting the work of criminal gangs’.
The government has insisted off-shore asylum is necessary to deter migrants from paying people smugglers to take them on perilous Channel crossings rather than other routes.
Downing Street said the current approach cost the UK taxpayer £1.5 billion every year already, with almost £5 million a day accommodating asylum seekers in hotels.
The archbishops of Canterbury and York, along with the other Anglican bishops in the House of Lords, condemned the ‘immoral’ plan and said trafficking should be stopped by creating safe routes to Britain.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said: ‘Deporting asylum seekers should shame us as a nation.’
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