Under the British government’s current plan to traffic asylum seekers overseas, both Paddington and Prince Phillip would today be at risk of being sent to Rwanda

At the Baobab Centre we were all very happy to see that the Queen received Paddington to tea for her Jubilee Celebration. But does everyone know that Paddington is a refugee who arrived in the UK irregularly?

Or that Prince Phillip himself was a child refugee, forced to leave Corfu in 1922 in a makeshift orange box at just 18 months old, spending his childhood years in France, Germany, and the UK. It is widely reported, including on the Royal.uk website, that… King George V ordered that a Royal Navy ship should evacuate the family from Corfu, and Philip was carried to safety in a cot made from an orange box in December 1922. He was just 18 months old.

And does everyone realise that under the British government’s current plan to traffic asylum seekers overseas, both Paddington and Prince Phillip would today be at risk of being sent to Rwanda without having a chance for their asylum claim to be heard in Britain?

The 2021 Human Rights Watch report on Rwanda provides significant detail on the human rights abuses the country is responsible for, as well as evidence of the horrific treatment facing vulnerable groups and children. The governments controversial age assessment process will inevitably mean young people who are minors will be incorrectly processed as adults and sent to Rwanda. 

The government spokespeople claim that the plan will reduce trafficking and prevent people from illegally accessing asylum, when in fact this illegal and inhumane plan will see the UK government paying Rwanda to trade human beings, inevitably retraumatising and re-trafficking vulnerable children, men, women, and families. Families who want nothing more than to rebuild their life in a safe and peaceful way, having been forced to flee their homes to escape persecution, violence and human rights abuses.

The whole Baobab community will fight this abominable plan and make sure that Britain upholds the great tradition of offering refuge to refugees.