My reporting and experience in Rwanda was used as evidence in the legal challenge against the UK Home Office’s Rwanda deportation plan
People light candles during a night vigil at Nyanza Genocide Memorial Center, Kigali, Rwanda . This month Rwanda is paying tribute to the victims of genocide 30 years after a vicious campaign orchestrated by Hutu extremists tore the country apart. Photograph: Guillem Sartorio/AFP/Getty
I have reported in Rwanda three times over the past decade. One of my very first assignments as a reporter – when I was just 24 – was covering the 20th anniversary of the genocide, also for The Irish Times. During that trip, I interviewed Mary Robinson, who spoke about the “very tight control” of the media there.
Refugees continued to contact me after I left, both to give general updates and to forward complaints about their treatment that were not being resolved. One particular case involved a claim about the alleged attempted sexual assault of a minor. I only published a report after the teenager had been publicly denounced online by the Rwandan police force, before a proper investigation was concluded.
Abusive migration policies are being seen all over the western world, and they are growing incrementally in their cruelty. I know people in the UK who are at risk of being sent to Rwanda at this moment. Many have spent years trying to reach safety, crossing seas and deserts, living through detention, and watching friends or family members die. This deal – created to act as a deterrent – is mental torture for those who have gone through so much.
I am often asked by British media what else the British are meant to do to stop people arriving on their shores, as if the UK is the only place people are migrating to. Last month, I stood on the border between Sudan and South Sudan,. South Sudan still maintains an “open door” policy. The Sudan war is just one of many current crises “forgotten” by many in the western world.
Crowds participate in a 'Walk to Remember' as part of commemorations for the 30th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide in Kigali, Rwanda, on April 11th. Photograph: Guillem Sartorio/AFP/Getty
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