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Robert Jenrick’s decision came just hours after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak tabled a bill to save his Rwanda deportation policy, which if passed would allow ministers to disregard some human rights laws
Britain’s ongoing effort to park illegal immigrants in Rwanda continues to be a bone of contention and creating ripples in the ruling Conservative Party. The grand old party suffered a setback after its immigration minister quit over legislation sending migrants to Rwanda. Robert Jenrick said he had resigned due to strong disagreements with the direction of the government’s policy on immigration.
Robert Jenrick’s decision came just hours after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak tabled a bill to save his Rwanda deportation policy, which if passed would allow ministers to disregard some human rights laws. The bill proposes giving ministers powers to disregard sections of the UK Human Rights Act and ECHR when considering deportation cases. In his reply, Sunak said Jenrick’s resignation was disappointing and based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation.
However, Jenrick and other hardliners, including former interior minister Suella Braverman, feel it doesn’t go far enough. Braverman and her supporters are calling for Sunak to take Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights altogether, and override all other international law in a bid to ensure the UK can send flights to Kigali. Rwanda had earlier warned that it would pull out of a treaty to accept migrants if Britain did not respect international law. The deportation plan was first announced in April 2022. Since then, it has been repeatedly delayed by legal challenges.
Suella Braverman and her allies on the right wing of the Tories, who take a hard line to prevent migrant boats arriving across the Channel, urged Rishi Sunak to amend this bill, which they said was doomed to failure. She averred that the project would not work and would not stop the boats coming to British shores. Suella Braverman, who was sacked by Rishi Sunak in November, wants London to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights and other international conventions on human rights.
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https://trendsnafrica.com/din-and-dust-in-british-parliament-over-new-immigration-bill-with-rwanda/
https://trendsnafrica.com/british-pm-sunak-feels-immigration-treaty-with-rwanda-still-workable/
Initially championed by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, this controversial project to send illegal migrants to Rwanda has been blocked for months by the courts, and the Conservative government is trying to save it by any means possible, following a final setback from the British Supreme Court last month.
