Deportation question in the House of Commons
Sunak’s Rwanda plan is in danger of defeat – hardliners are calling for tightening measures
December 12, 2023, 4:10 p.m
Limiting migration is one of the Tories’ key election promises. A deportation plan to Rwanda fails in court, the number of migrants remains high. The government wants to respond with a new law, but risks suffering another setback in a vote.
Since midday, the British House of Commons has been debating a migration agreement that is hotly disputed in the conservative ruling party and which envisages the deportation of asylum seekers to Rwanda. In the vote expected this evening, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces defeat because the bill does not go far enough for some Tory MPs.
In order to avert the defeat in the vote, the British government even recalled the head of its delegation to the World Climate Conference. Climate State Secretary Graham Stuart left COP28 in Dubai to take part in the vote on the Rwanda Asylum Pact bill, the British news agency PA reported, citing the government headquarters at 10 Downing Street. Stuart would then return to the climate conference, it was said.
The prime minister, who has been in office for about a year, is under strong domestic pressure to limit immigration. With the vote, he risks losing authority just a few months before the parliamentary election. Both the opposition and the right wing of his party have fiercely attacked him.
The text up for vote responds to the British Supreme Court’s decision in November to declare an earlier version of the plan to deport migrants to Rwanda unlawful.
Court: Rwanda is not a safe third country
The court had not classified Rwanda as a safe third country and viewed the plan as incompatible with Britain’s international obligations. The court explained that it could not be ruled out that Rwanda could deport people to regions where they were at risk of persecution.
Immediately after the court ruling, the government in London announced that it wanted to conclude a new agreement with Rwanda. This was signed by Interior Minister James Cleverly in Kigali last week.
The new text defines Rwanda as a safe third country and prevents the return of migrants from Rwanda to their country of origin. It also proposes not to apply parts of British human rights law to deportations in order to restrict legal recourse for migrants. The Minister responsible for immigration, Michael Tomlinson, spoke on Sky News of “one of the toughest texts ever presented in Parliament against illegal migration”.
Brexiteers draft does not go far enough
The day before, various groups within the divided Tories had discussed the bill. The moderate parliamentary group “One Nation” announced that it would vote for the text. The radical Brexit advocates at the European Research Group, however, said the draft only offered a “partial and incomplete solution” to preventing legal proceedings and required “very important changes”.
Parts of the Conservatives also believe that Britain should withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights and other international human rights agreements. If the right wing of the Conservatives reject the bill, it would be a major defeat for Prime Minister Sunak.
The controversial project with Rwanda was decided in April 2022 under then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, but has not yet been implemented. A flight with migrants to the East African country planned for June 2022 was canceled at short notice following a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.
The British government has made tackling illegal migration a priority. The deportation of refugees who entered Rwanda illegally is seen as one of the most important means. London is under pressure from record numbers of migrants crossing the English Channel. This year around 29,700 people came to the UK this way. Last year there were almost 46,000.