False – the statement is untrue, there is no evidence to support it, the author is lying or unintentionally sharing misleading information.
The MP and candidate for the European Parliament elections Edvīns Šnore (the National Alliance party) made a statement on a TikTok video claiming that thousands of “illegal immigrants” arrive in England by boat every day and that the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has forbidden the country to “send them back to Africa”. This is not true.
In the TikTok video, Šnore says:
“Well, it looks like Europe is about to be destroyed not by war but by another disaster – England has announced that it will possibly leave the European Court of Human Rights, and as a consequence also from the Council of Europe after being a member for 75 years. Why? Because the European Court of Human Rights has forbidden them to send back illegal immigrants to Africa. But England is overflooded by immigrants. Thousands arrive by boat every day.”
Two years ago, the UK government signed a treaty with Rwanda that would allow them to send asylum seekers and migrants who have crossed the border in an illegal way to Rwanda. Rwanda would consider the claims for asylum, but even the people who would be granted asylum could not return to the UK.
The ECtHR has not prohibited “sending illegal immigrants back to Africa”.
In June 2022, a ECtHR decision halted the first deportation of seven migrants to Rwanda that was initiated by the UK government, and the court made the decision following a complaint by an Iraqi national. The ECtHR concluded that Rwanda was not a safe country for asylum seekers because of the risk that Rwanda would not process the applications fairly and would also send asylum seekers whose lives would be at risk to their countries of origin. Meanwhile, in the UK itself, the courts were assessing the legality of the whole plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, and in November 2023 the Supreme Court of the UK ruled that it was illegal. Its reasoning was similar to that of the ECtHR. None of the courts has ruled that asylum seekers who do not meet the criteria to be granted a status should not be returned.
The UK government has not abandoned the idea and the UK Parliament is currently considering a bill that would allow for the circumvention of the decision by the Supreme Court. This could be done by, for example, designating Rwanda as a safe country for asylum seekers. There is strong opposition to the bill and The House of Lords voted for a motion delaying the ratification of the new Rwanda treaty.
Šnore is wrong that “thousands arrive in England by boat every day”. According to the UK Home Office, 29 400 migrants tried entering the country by boat last year. This means an average of 80 people a day, not thousands.
The claim that the UK wants to send them “back to Africa” is also incorrect, because in recent years most of the migrants arriving by boat come from countries in Asia. Most of those arriving by illegal routes hold an Afghan, Iranian or Turkish passport.
In a telephone conversation with Re:Check, Šnore was asked about the sources of the information in the video, but the MP refused to answer.
Conclusion: the European Court of Human Rights has not banned “sending immigrants back to Africa”. Last year, an average of 80 migrants arrived in the UK by boat per day, not thousands, as the MP claims, and the majority came from Asian countries.
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