The Home Office Rwanda stance is a riddle without a solution

The Home Office has granted asylum to Rwandan refugees at the same time as arguing the country is a safe destination for asylum seekers. Kate Devlin analyses what this means for Rishi Sunak’s flagship policy to ‘stop the boats’ crossing the Channel

Prime minister Rishi Sunak has made ‘stopping the boats’ one of the key pledges of his leadership (PA)

How can the UK declare a country both safe and unsafe – all at the same time? If all this sounds like a riddle, it should not.

At least according to the Home Office, which appears to have been arguing both things about Rwanda. The UK has, it’s emerged, given asylum to Rwandan refugees on the grounds that their fear of persecution in their home country is “well-founded”, at the same time as arguing that the country is safe for asylum seekers.