In a vote deemed a “victory” for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the British Parliament has given the green light to a bill to allow the deportation of migrants to Rwanda. Before the approval, Sunak had said that the first deportation flights to Rwanda could take off this Monday. Within 10 to 12 weeksThere is hope that the parliamentary deadlock over the move will end.
The 10 to 12 week deadline is later than the prime minister would have liked, saying he wanted it to happen in the spring. Sunak told a press conference on Monday night that Parliament would act “no matter how long” and blamed Labor for making the process difficult until the bill was approved. The British press reported that the bill was approved at midnight.
The legislation will return to the House of Commons (the lower house of parliament) after the House of Lords (upper house) voted in favor of two amendments last week, frustrating an attempt to approve the government's proposal.
The so-called parliamentary “ping-pong” over Rwanda's defense bill has been going on for almost three weeks. The fourth round began this Monday, approaching the record of five rounds achieved in 2000. The government has not made any concessions. The ten amendments, approved by the Lords on different occasions, require exemptions for Afghans who aided British troops and require Parliament to decide that Rwanda is a safe country.
In order to be enacted, legislation must be approved by both houses, traditionally the common assembly, whose members are elected, and the government has a majority. “From the moment the bill is passed, we will start the process of removing those identified for the first flight,” Sunak said.
Ahead of judicial appeals that could take four to eight weeks, the head of government said the immigration detention space had been increased to 2,200, 200 staff had been trained and dedicated to examining cases, 25 courtrooms had been made available and 150 judges had been identified to assess cases. .
The law allows the government to ignore precautionary measures by the European Court of Human Rights. “No foreign court will stop us,” Sunak declared, promising to “deport him to Rwanda no matter what.”
With 6,265 people already crossing the English Channel this year, Sunak hopes the scheme will deter illegal immigration.
In 2023, 29,437 illegal immigrants arrived in vessels such as rubber boats, a 36% decrease compared to 45,774 in 2022.
