Writer and activist George Monbiot has picked apart the “sadistic” government’s Rwanda deportation policy on BBC Question Time.
Appearing on the broadcaster’s flagship politics show, which this week came from Petersfield, Monbiot attacked the ailing plan for not trying to “solve anything”.
Instead, he said the driving force was to “performatively beat up some of the most vulnerable and traumatised people on earth”.
In response, Conservative minister Johnny Mercer said the idea the policy was implemented “for votes is incorrect”. “It’s done because we have too many people coming in,” he added.
This week, the Conservatives on Wednesday unveiled a bill that will let it ignore a part of the UK’s human rights law in order to send asylum seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda as part of Rishi Sunak’s “stop the boats” policy.
The legislation is designed to overcome a block by the UK Supreme Court on its Rwanda policy. The court ruled last month that the plan was illegal because Rwanda isn’t a safe country for refugees.
On the BBC show, Monbiot said: “The whole point of the Rwanda policy is not to try to solve anything. It’s to performatively beat up some of the most vulnerable and traumatised people on earth, in order to distract attention from the government’s own failures.”
Monbiot added asylum seekers had suffered “unspeakable things” and merely wanted “safe haven”, only for a “government of sadists deliberately beating them up in order to show how tough they are”.
You can watch the full diatribe below.