Catastrophic Rwanda policy: that poor country is already overpopulated compared with the UK

Dear Editor,
Catastrophic Rwanda policy: that poor country is already overpopulated compared with the UK

Our government’s policy to deport vulnerable asylum seekers to Rwanda is deeply and intuitively wrong for the reasons given by leading healthcare organisations as summarised by Clare Dyer.1 it is improper to deport people seeking sanctuary to one of the world’s poorest countries, with it’s recent, genocidal civil war. The policy smacks of economic imperialism. Moreover, there is a pragmatic reason against this policy that has been overlooked and that relates to population density.

One of the core arguments for our own increasingly tough immigration policies is that the UK, is already full. That is, arguably, true though not so for Scotland. The population density in Rwanda in 2020, according to United Nations population division forecasts available at the Worldometer website, was 525 per Km2.(2) The population was 13.925 million people. Moreover, the population density of Rwanda is forecast to rise rapidly, unlike that of the UK. By 2035, the population density there is estimated at 726 per square kilometre. By contrast, in 2023 the UK had a population of 67.89 million people and a population density of 281 people per square kilometre, and about 65 in Scotland. The population of the UK, by contrast with Rwanda, is growing very slowly.

Given Rwanda is far more densely populated than the UK how can we justify sending people there?

Raj S Bhopal
Emeritus Professor of Public Health
Edinburgh Migration, Ethnicity and Health Research Group,
Usher Institute, Medical School, University of Edinburgh, Teviot Place, Edinburgh EH8 9AG
1. Dyer C. Medics warn of “catastrophic” health effects of UK policy to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. 2023;381:p935. doi: 10.1136/bmj.p935 %J BMJ
2 Population by Country (2023) – Worldometer (worldometers.info)