“What do they know of England, who only England know?” was the ode that Rudyard Kipling once sang. His claim was a confession that, if you really needed to know about the structures that govern this island, you shouldn’t look here at all: you should look at India, Jamaica or Nigeria.
Last week, it was Rwanda’s turn to tell us about ourselves: the UK government announced it had signed a deal to transport asylum seekers who arrive in the UK to an offshore processing site in the East African state before their application would even be considered.
This agreement is the legislative realisation of the admiration that this government and its media cheerleaders have long had for the Australian offshore immigration detention system, where asylum seekers have been held in the harrowing purgatory of island camps in Nauru and Papua New Guinea for years on end whilst their claims stall.
