On Easter Day, the UK minister for Brexit opportunities, Jacob Rees-Mogg, defended a controversial initiative to relocate illegal migrants to Rwanda as an “Easter story of redemption” after the plan was criticized by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.
The minister was asked by BBC Radio 4 on Sunday to comment on Welby’s morning sermon in which he strongly criticized the new Migration Partnership between the UK and Rwanda. In Rees-Mogg’s opinion, the archbishop “misunderstands what the policy is trying to achieve.” He stressed that sending asylum seekers and refugees to East Africa for the processing of asylum applications is not an attempt to shift responsibility but, vice versa, “taking on of a very difficult responsibility.”
He explained that the new initiative is poised to address the problem of human trafficking and to benefit Rwanda.