DBritish Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pushed the draft law, which is intended to declare Rwanda a safe third country and enable the deportation of illegal migrants there, through the discussions in the House of Commons without any changes. 320 of the 349 members of his group voted for the bill; 276 opposition MPs voted against the bill.
Tougher amendments previously supported by 60 members of his own conservative party, which would have more broadly overturned the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, were ignored. Many group members who had expressed their displeasure against Sunak ended up voting for the bill, which is now being discussed by the House of Lords.
New contract with Rwanda
The new legislation is intended to allow British authorities to deport migrants entering the country illegally, who are usually smuggled across the English Channel in rubber boats, to Rwanda without an asylum check. The first such plan failed due to the ruling of the Supreme Court in London, which ruled that Rwanda should not be viewed as a safe third country because the expulsion of migrants or deportation to their home countries could not be ruled out.
Sunak's government subsequently signed a new, internationally binding treaty with Rwanda in which the East African country committed to accepting an unspecified number of migrants sent to it from the United Kingdom and continuing to host them in the country even after they arrived do not receive asylum status after a Rwandan asylum procedure. On Wednesday, the Rwandan government, which can expect up to 400 million pounds (almost 500 million euros) in British funds for development aid as a result of the agreement, told the BBC that if no migrants came to Rwanda at all, it would be subject to repayment of resources available.
Concern about political damage
The new law on “the security of Rwanda” stipulates that responsible ministers no longer have to definitely adhere to preliminary orders from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg when it comes to deporting migrants to Rwanda. The first attempt by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson to organize a deportation flight to Rwanda failed in April 2022 due to such an interim injunction from the Human Rights Court. The stricter amendments, which were put forward by representatives of the right wing of the Conservatives, stipulated, among other things, that those responsible in Britain should be legally prohibited from following the orders from Strasbourg.
Several former ministers, such as former Interior Minister Suella Braverman and Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, who resigned a month ago, argued that only with these tightening measures would it be possible to finally get deportations to Rwanda underway. Their opponents within the party, such as former Attorney General Jeremy Wright, argued that the British Parliament had the right to pass laws that violated international law such as the European Convention on Human Rights, but that doing so would cause serious political damage – because this act provided exculpatory arguments for states such as Russia , if they themselves violated international agreements.
On Tuesday, two deputy party chief executives, who had recently been appointed to these positions by Rishi Sunak, resigned from their positions in order to be able to vote for more stringent amendments to the Rwanda bill. The “rebels” in the ruling party did not gather enough votes in the final vote on the law to defeat the bill – and possibly their prime minister – but they did damage his authority and leadership. Further debates and delays await if the Rwanda law is passed on to the upper house, where the conservative peers do not have their own majority.
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