Leaders | Somebody else’s problem

Shipping asylum-seekers to Rwanda could wreck the Refugee Convention

The fact that Britain's plan could work is what makes it so dangerous

Apr 23rd 2022

BRITAIN WAS one of the first countries to ratify the Refugee Convention of 1951, which spelled out countries’ obligations to protect fugitives from persecution who had arrived in their territories and not return them to danger. The convention was “an excellent instrument”, said Selwyn Lloyd, a Conservative minister in the Foreign Office. No country in Europe was doing as much to help refugees, boasted another minister.

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Somebody else’s problem”