British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s latest effort to deport migrants to Rwanda finally won approval from the British parliament last night, hours after he promised deportation flights would begin in July.
The parliamentary deadlock that had paralyzed legislation for two months was finally broken after an intense night and months of tug-of-war between the House of Commons (lower) and the House of Lords (upper), over amendments that had been made. added by the peers, rejected by the deputies. The way is thus cleared for the piece of legislation to become law at the end of this week, after the royal approval of King Charles.
The last obstacle standing in the way of Sunak’s plan to deport migrants, which has been repeatedly blocked by a series of court rulings and opposition from human rights activists, is thus overcome.
Tens of thousands of migrants – many fleeing wars and poverty in Africa, the Middle East and Asia – have arrived in the UK in recent years, crossing the English Channel in small boats, undertaking risky journeys organized by gangs. human trafficking.
After the law passed through parliament, Sunak said in a statement to the media that the law is “historic” and represents “a fundamental change in the global migration equation.” “We introduced the Rwanda bill to deter vulnerable migrants from making dangerous crossings and break the business model of the criminal gangs that exploit them,” he said. The passage of this legislation “will make it very clear that if you come here illegally, you will not be able to stay. Our goal now is to get flights off the ground, and I am clear that nothing will stand in the way of us doing that and saving lives,” he added.
Stopping the flow is a priority for the government, but critics say the plan to deport people to Rwanda instead of taking care of asylum seekers in their country is inhumane. They cite concerns about the East African country’s own human rights record and the risk of asylum seekers being sent back to countries where they face danger.
Sunak’s new law says some existing UK human rights statutes will not apply to the plan and British judges must treat Rwanda as a safe destination, in a bid to overturn a Supreme Court ruling that declared the plan illegal. concluding that the African nation is not safe because the migrants could be returned to their countries of origin, from which they fled. It also limits individuals’ options to appeal only to exceptional cases.
Under policy formulated two years ago, and agreed with Rwanda, any asylum seeker who arrives illegally in the UK will be sent to Rwanda under a plan the government says will deter Channel crossings and destroy the smugglers’ business model. of people.
Sunak’s team hopes the pre-election promise will help turn around his electoral fortunes, particularly among wavering Conservative voters who want to see less immigration. Polls suggest his Conservative Party will be badly beaten in this year’s election by the Labor Party, which has said it will abandon the plan if it wins power. The Labor Party says it will seek a deal with the European Union to return some arrivals to continental Europe.
Even after successfully clearing parliamentary hurdles, Sunak may still face legal challenges to the law.
Charities and human rights groups say they will try to stop individual deportations and the union representing border force staff vows to argue the new legislation is illegal “within days” of the first asylum seekers being informed that They will be sent to Rwanda. “We urgently need the UK government to start treating refugees with decency and stop trying to send them to an unsafe future in Rwanda,” Lucy Gregg, acting head of advocacy at Freedom from Torture, said in a statement.
Other European countries, including Austria and Germany, are also considering agreements to process asylum seekers abroad.
