Whatever wrongs there may be about the British Government’s controversial plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, and there are many, the most deplorable is the blatant admission that it will disproportionately hit Muslims.

A Home Office Equality Impact Assessment even dared to claim that the “greater impact on Muslims” was right. “It is a proportionate means of achieving the policy’s legitimate aim to deter individuals from making such perilous journeys,” it claimed in all its haughtiness.

The scheme to set up the equivalent of penal colonies is so outrageous that some believe it is being used as a political distraction from Downing Street partygate.

The Prime Minister himself has already referred to the likelihood of ‘liberal lawyers’ putting a spanner in the works of the incredible Rwanda plan being so difficult to swallow. Home Secretary Priti Patel was said to have had to intervene to approve the bizarre scheme after her officials voiced concern about its absurdity.

Refugee organisations have already described the apparent proposal as “evil” and “inhumane”, and it is in this context that the assessment attempts to vindicate the likely disproportionate impact there would be on “certain races and nationalities” as well.

It is not to say that Britain does not face grave issues regarding waves of refugees seeking asylum. Not indeed that the vast majority seeking safe havens are Muslims given that such countries as Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Syria and Afghanistan have accounted for up to three-quarters in the last few years.

But that is more likely to reduce the numbers than any hair-brain ingenuity is if the UK, along with the US in particular, resists militarily interfering in other countries, especially in the Muslim world. Such geopolitical exploits date back to the age of imperialism that ought to be buried in the annals of history rather than being resurrected.

What is especially offensive is the tone adopted in the Home Office report, as if Muslims are mere fodder. There is much more to it than being dismissed as “some perception of unfairness” in the assessments of the suitability for any relocation over 6,000 miles away.

The UK’s murky past, like sending undesirables and petty convicts to the other side of the world in Australia, still leaves a mark on the country. Time is well overdue to move on from its colonial misdeeds and respect all people as equals, including Muslims too.

U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel and Rwandan Minister Vincent Biruta sign the migration and economic development partnership between the U.K. and Rwanda. Photo by: UK Home Office / CC BY