In recent news, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faced setbacks regarding his proposal to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, as the upper house of parliament called for additional protections to be put in place before deportation flights can be initiated.
The plan to send asylum seekers who arrive on England’s southern coast in small boats to live in Rwanda has not yet been implemented, with legal challenges preventing any deportations from taking place.
To tackle resistance from the courts, Sunak’s government is pushing legislation through parliament to prevent further legal challenges by designating Rwanda as a “safe country” for asylum seekers.
Members of the House of Lords, consisting mostly of former politicians and government officials, voted in favor of amendments that would require flights to only depart once a treaty ensuring legal safeguards in Rwanda’s asylum system had been fully enacted.
They also approved an amendment mandating that the legislation adhere to international and domestic law, as well as one stipulating that proof of Rwanda’s safety for refugees must be established before flights proceed.
However, the House of Commons, the more powerful elected body, maintains the authority to overturn these changes in a process known as “parliamentary ping-pong,” potentially leading to the legislation being passed without amendments.
Concerns were raised by some Lords regarding the current draft of the legislation, which they believe would require treating Rwanda as a safe country regardless of the actual situation.
Christopher Tugendhat, a Conservative Lord, criticized the government’s approach, likening it to the totalitarian regime depicted in George Orwell’s novel “1984.”
Sunak has expressed a desire for the first deportation flights to take off within the next few months, aligning with his pledge to “stop the boats,” especially as a general election is anticipated later this year.
Over 2,500 asylum seekers have arrived in Britain by small boats this year, with a tragic incident involving the death of a seven-year-old girl after a capsized boat off the coast of France over the weekend.
In a comprehensive financial evaluation of the Rwanda policy, the British government’s spending watchdog estimated that deporting the initial 300 refugees would cost over 600 million pounds ($762 million).
($1 = 0.7875 pound)
(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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