Rwanda becomes a safe third country
British Parliament votes for controversial asylum law
April 23, 2024, 1:49 a.m
Great Britain has long planned to deport migrants to Rwanda. The plan is considered controversial. Parliament is now voting for a corresponding bill. Prime Minister Sunak wants to ignore objections from the European Court of Justice in the future.
After weeks of discussions, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pushed a law on the controversial asylum pact with Rwanda through parliament. Migrants should be deported to the East African country regardless of their origin if they enter Great Britain illegally. The draft, which the upper house approved on Tuesday night after much resistance, declares Rwanda a safe third country by law.
The government wants to prevent appeals against deportations in British courts. The upper house – the House of Lords – as the second chamber of parliament, had passed amendments several times, which were then reversed by the lower house in a time-consuming process. Eventually the House of Lords gave up its resistance. This means that King Charles III’s bill can be passed. be put into effect with his signature.
No papers – no asylum
The asylum pact with Rwanda stipulates that migrants who entered the country irregularly should no longer be given the opportunity to apply for asylum in Great Britain. Instead, they should be taken to Rwanda and apply for asylum there. There are no plans to return to Great Britain. The plan was first put forward two years ago by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The aim of the regulation is to prevent people from making dangerous journeys across the English Channel in small boats. But opponents doubt that the law will deter migrants. There is also criticism that Great Britain pays hundreds of millions of pounds to Rwanda, but probably only a fraction of the people who entered the country irregularly are deported. Prime Minister Sunak announced that he would ignore interim injunctions from the European Court of Human Rights against the asylum pact with Rwanda. At the same time, he emphasized on Monday that his actions did not conflict with international law.
Sunak announced that the first plane should take off in ten to twelve weeks. The government had previously announced the first departure for spring. Commercial charter flights were booked for the deportations. In addition, hundreds of clerks and judges have been chosen to process possible lawsuits. The only flight that was supposed to take off to Rwanda was stopped at the last minute by an injunction from the European Court of Human Rights. The highest court in Great Britain later declared the asylum pact unlawful. The Rwanda law is now intended to overturn this ruling. Irregular migration is a nuisance for the Conservative government, which is under considerable pressure given a huge deficit in the polls in the general election year. Every year tens of thousands of people come into the country via the English Channel, but there is hardly any capacity to accommodate them.