 The United Kingdom has signed a $158 million offshore asylum processing agreement with Rwanda. Anyone deemed to have arrived in the UK unlawfully since January 1, 2022 may now be at risk of transfer to Rwanda. Rights groups have condemned the proposal as barbaric, cruel, and inhumane. They have also drawn parallels to the offshoring policies adopted by Australia. Refugees were sent to centres in Papua New Guinea and the Republic of Nauru. Horrific abuses were recorded in detention camps including rape, murder, and suicide. Speaking to BBC Radio 4, UNHCR Assistant Secretary General Gillian Triggs denounced the UK's proposal as an egregious breach of international refugee and human rights law. Globally, only about 1% of refugees have access to safe and dietary settlement through the United Nations. This means that a majority of people are being forced to undertake previous journeys at risk of violence and detention by border forces. In 2021, nearly 29,000 asylum seekers crossed to the UK through the English Channel. This was more than three times the number in 2020. According to the UK's Border Force, an estimated 60,000 people are expected to undertake this dangerous journey in 2022. Under the proposed agreement, some of the people arriving to the UK through undocumented and irregular routes will be screened and flown to Rwanda. Kigali will handle the asylum claims process. If a person's application is successful, they will be granted asylum in Rwanda. If not, they will either be deported to the country of origin or a third country where they may seek asylum. The UK government has not clarified the criteria for determining which asylum seekers will be transferred. However, it has said that flights could begin in the coming weeks with an initial focus on single men who cross the English Channel in small boats or lorries. Operational command over the waters has been handed over from the border force to the Royal Navy. Rwanda has stated that the agreement in its current form is set to last for five years. The Foreign Ministry stated that the UK had already paid for housing and integration of migrants. People fleeing war, torture and prosecution have a right to claim refugee status in the UK under international agreements. However, they can only claim asylum on British soil. Once the new agreement is enforced, asylum seekers may be transported to Rwanda before even getting a chance to raise their claims. According to reports, senior civil servants within the UK Home Office had raised concerns regarding the offshoring proposal. These were overruled by Home Secretary Priti Patel who issued a rare ministerial direction to push forward with the agreement. The UK has tried to justify its inhumane policies as a crackdown on illegal smuggling of people across borders. Advocates argue that this emphasis distracts from the violent border policies adopted by states which push vulnerable people to take irregular routes. Rights groups and the United Nations have warned that such offshoring policies are ineffective and often violate international law. The UK is hardly alone in pursuing such violent and xenophobic policies. For example, Israel struck deals in 2013 to transfer asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea to Rwanda and Uganda. An estimated 4,000 people were deported under the scheme. However, a 2018 study by Oxford University revealed refugees had escaped Rwanda with many attempting to reach Europe. Denmark's ruling Social Democratic Party has proclaimed a zero refugees policy. In June 2021, Parliament passed a legislation under which refugees would be sent to a third country outside Europe for their applications to be processed. Over 150 organisations have written to the Boris Johnson-led government calling on them to scrap their proposals. This includes the widely opposed Nationality and Waters Bill, which is currently in Parliament. Many people come from countries that are connected to the UK because of war, invasion or colonisation. To send people seeking asylum to Rwanda is cruel and immoral and is the breach of the Refugee Convention, said the letter.