Last month, the UK Government announced plans to relocate thousands of asylum seekers in Rwanda, thousands of miles away, triggering numerous controversies and prompting anger among pro-refugee British people.
Don’t know where this dinner for the Home Secretary was happening, but tremendous protest by these young people against @pritipatel’s racist regime #Rwanda #RefugeesWelcome❤️ pic.twitter.com/4jpmJe0CmU
— Aamer Anwar✊??️?#BlackLivesMatter (@AamerAnwar) May 8, 2022
In a continuation of protests against the controversial Rwanda plan, which has been deemed as harming refugee interests as it sends them away from the country where they chose to build a future, eight young activists disrupted a dinner event organized by the UK's conservative party, during a speech delivered by Home Secretary Priti Patel.
The eight activists who have been identified as members of the social justice and climate Green New Deal Rising campaign took turns in standing up and voicing out their rejection of the Rwanda relocation plan, calling Patel's immigration policies "racist" and "disgusting."
This creates a ripple effect that makes the protest last much longer than if all began protesting at once. It also amplifies the impact. After the first protestor is dragged off, one would expect the protest to be over — but no, there's another, then another, then another!
— Pieter Friedrich ("The Gadfly") (@FriedrichPieter) May 8, 2022
Security officers escorted activists outside of the hall as Patel waited for the protest to end to continue her speech.
The protest that was widely hailed online shed light again on the plan discussed by the UK government last month, which was justified as an attempt to "save countless lives from human trafficking," as per official statements.
According to pro-refugee commentators, the Rwanda relocation policy aims to exclude "unwanted" refugees from the UK.
