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British lawmakers voted to support the government’s plan to send some asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda. This has kept alive the policy that has agitated the human rights groups and cost the U.K. at least US$300 million. So far, the proposed project has not got off the ground.
The House of Commons voted 313-269 to approve the government’s Rwanda bill in principle, sending it on for further scrutiny. The result averts a defeat that would have left Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s authority shredded and his government teetering. It buys Sunak some breathing space. But political analysts opine that he is not yet out from the wranglings completely. The bill seeks to overcome a ruling by the U.K. Supreme Court that the plan to send migrants who reach Britain across the English Channel in boats to Rwanda – where they would stay permanently — is illegal. It may be recalled that Britain signed a new deal on December 5 with Rwanda, which addressed some of the concerns expressed by the top court and earlier by the lower courts.
British Home Secretary James Cleverly said the legally binding agreement would address all the issues raised by the U.K. Supreme Court when it ruled last month that the controversial policy was unlawful. However, the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill evoked criticism from Conservative centrists who think it skirts with breaking international law. and from lawmakers on the party’s right hardliners, who say it doesn’t go far enough to ensure migrants who arrive in the U.K. without permission can be deported. After threatening to block the bill on Tuesday, many of the hard-liners abstained in hopes of toughening it up later in the legislative process.
Read also:
https://trendsnafrica.com/british-immigration-minister-resigns-over-new-immigration-bill/
https://trendsnafrica.com/din-and-dust-in-british-parliament-over-new-immigration-bill-with-rwanda/
After the vote, Sunak said on social media that the British people should decide who gets to come to this country — not criminal gangs or foreign courts. He believes delivering on his promise will allow the Conservatives to close a big opinion-poll gap with the opposition Labour Party before an election that must be held in the next year. The plan has already cost the government at least 240 million pounds (US$300 million) in payments to Rwanda, which agreed in 2022 to process and settle hundreds of asylum-seekers a year from the U.K. Sunak argues that will deter migrants from making the hazardous journeys and break the business model of people-smuggling gangs. Sunak’s government argues that the treaty allows it to pass a law declaring that Rwanda is a safe destination, regardless of the Supreme Court ruling. The law, if approved by Parliament, would allow the government to “disapply” sections of U.K. human rights law when it comes to Rwanda-related asylum claims.
