Deportation of asylum seekers
Britain is sacrificing human rights to its Rwanda plan
December 6th, 2023, 8:20 p.m
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The Supreme Court rules that London’s plan to fly asylum seekers out to Rwanda immediately after their arrival violates human rights. Prime Minister Sunak wants to suspend the Human Rights Act in the case of Rwanda in order to be able to get rid of migrants this way.
The British government expressly does not want to let human rights stop its controversial plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda. Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said a new bill would stipulate that key parts of Britain’s Human Rights Act, which requires human rights, cannot be applied in the case of Rwanda. This will ensure “our plan cannot be stopped,” said Sunak.
The dispute over the tightening of British immigration laws is becoming more and more apparent within Sunak’s Conservative Party. Today, Wednesday, the Minister of State responsible for migration, Robert Jenrick, resigned. The MP, who is actually considered a confidante of Sunak, did not go far enough with the bill with which the Prime Minister wanted to enforce a controversial asylum pact with Rwanda. “I cannot continue in office when I so clearly disagree with the direction of the government’s immigration policy,” Jenrick wrote on Platform X (formerly Twitter). Department head James Cleverly confirmed the personnel in Parliament.
The planned law is intended to declare Rwanda a safe third country. The British government wants to immediately fly asylum seekers who come to the country irregularly to the East African country, regardless of their origin. They should apply for asylum there; a return to Great Britain is out of the question.
Sunak is under considerable pressure
The Supreme Court in London also stopped the project citing constitutional deficits in Rwanda. The Supreme Court emphasized that there is a risk that asylum seekers in the East African country will not receive a fair procedure. The court cited, among other things, reports from the UN refugee agency UNHCR. With the new law, the government believes it can remove the reservations. Prime Minister Sunak is under considerable pressure from the right wing to significantly reduce migration.
An extraordinary quote from Interior Secretary James Cleverly on the first page of the draft caused a stir. It says he is unable to say whether the law is compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The right wing of Sunak’s Conservative Party demands that Great Britain should withdraw from the ECHR so that international courts can no longer stop the project. It was the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg that stopped the only planned flight with asylum seekers to Rwanda at the last minute with a last-minute injunction.