The British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has got permission from Parliament to send some migrants to Rwanda. He promised deportation flights would start in July.
The Parliament had been stuck and couldn’t make any new laws for two months. Then, just after midnight, the House of Lords gave up on their changes to the bill and agreed to let the elected House of Commons make the final decision. This means the bill can now become a law.
Today, Sunak had a special meeting in the morning to ask the Lords to stop blocking his important plan to stop people coming to England in small boats. He said that Parliament will keep working until they agree to it.
The plan has been delayed because of a disagreement in the government, and because of court decisions and protests from human rights activists. They think the plan is against the law and cruel. Supporters of migrants have promised to keep fighting against it.
“For nearly two years, our rivals have been using all kinds of methods to stop battles and make sure the votes keep coming,” Sunak said to reporters in London on Monday morning. I’ve had it. “Stop lying and stalling. “
The UK government wants to send back some people who come into the country illegally to Rwanda. This is to warn others from trying to come to the UK in dangerous boats and then ask for protection once they arrive.
Tim Bale, a politics professor at Queen Mary University of London, said that even though Parliament has approved the law, there could still be more court challenges that might cause delays in the deportation flights.
“I’m not sure if it’s all taken care of yet,” he said. “We will see some efforts to legally stop people from being sent out of the country. ”
Sunak has put his political future on the line by saying he will stop deportation flights. He hopes this promise will convince people to vote for his Conservative Party in the upcoming election, as polls currently show them falling behind the Labour Party. The local elections next week will show how well the political parties may do in the national election.
The discussion in Britain is happening as many countries in Western Europe and North America try to find ways to reduce the growing number of people moving due to war, climate change, and political oppression.
In Britain, people are concerned about small boats carrying immigrants because they think the government is not doing a good job of controlling immigration.
More people are coming to Britain on small boats now than before. In 2022, 45,774 people arrived this way, which is a lot more than the 299 people who came like this four years ago. These people are paying criminal gangs a lot of money to bring them across the channel because they are looking for a safe place to live.
In the past year, the number of small boat arrivals decreased to 29,437 because the government took action against people who bring others into the country illegally and made a deal to send Albanians back to their own country.
“I believe the government really wants to pass this law because they think it will help them keep their promise to stop the boats,” Bale said.
Sunak said he wouldn’t be able to start deporting people this spring like he planned. He said the delay is because the Labour Party is still against it.
On Monday, Sunak said that flights to deport people would start in 10-12 weeks. But he didn’t give details about how many people would be deported or when the flights would happen. He said that giving this information could help people who don’t like the policy to keep trying to stop it.
Before the bill is approved, the government has arranged for planes to deport people, made more space to hold people in detention, hired more people to work on immigration cases, and made space in court to handle appeals, said Sunak.
He also said the government was willing to not listen to the European Court of Human Rights if it tried to stop the deportations.
“We are prepared, the plans are in place, and these flights will happen no matter what,” said Sunak. “Other countries can’t prevent us from taking our flights. ”
The Safety of Rwanda Bill is a new law made to keep migrants safe. It was created because the UK Supreme Court stopped flights to Rwanda for migrants because the government couldn’t make sure they would be safe there. After making a new agreement with Rwanda to better protect migrants, the government suggested a new law saying Rwanda is a safe place.
The bill is stuck in the complex rules of the British law-making system. The House of Lords checks and changes laws passed by the House of Commons, but it can’t stop laws from being passed.
The Rwanda bill went back and forth between the two houses of Parliament. The Lords suggested changes, but the Commons said no and sent it back to the Lords.
The people who don’t like the government’s plan didn’t want to say what they will do next. James Wilson, who leads Detention Action, said we should focus on what’s important and not get stuck in political arguments. Detention Action works to stop human rights abuses in immigration, and Wilson wants people to pay attention to that.
“He said that the most important things are not the details of Parliament and what is happening there. ” Ultimately, this is about individuals. This is about how people live.