The UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has narrowly avoided a defeat in parliament on his emergency bill to revive his plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, after facing a rebellion from dozens of his lawmakers.
Sunak, who has staked his reputation on the strategy, secured the first vote on the legislation in the House of Commons on Tuesday, following a day of frantic negotiations and fears that some of his Conservative MPs would help block the bill because it was either too harsh or too lenient.
The bill is designed to override legal obstacles that would prevent the deportation of those arriving illegally in small boats on England’s southern coast, a policy that the UK Supreme Court ruled last month would breach British and international human rights laws and agreements.
According to a report by Reuters, Sunak argued that the bill would restore the public’s trust in the immigration system and deter criminal gangs from exploiting vulnerable migrants. “The British people should decide who gets to come to this country – not criminal gangs or foreign courts,” Sunak said on X after the vote. “That’s what this bill delivers.”
But critics say the bill is immoral, ineffective, and unlawful, and that it would damage the UK’s reputation as a champion of human rights and a haven for refugees.
The Conservative Split
The bill exposed the deep divisions within the Conservative Party, which has been in power for 13 years and is trailing the opposition Labour Party by around 20 points with an election expected next year.
Moderate Conservatives said they would not support the bill if it meant Britain breaching its human rights obligations, while right-wing MPs said it did not go far enough to stop migrants from making legal challenges to prevent their removal.
That group said they would abstain rather than support Sunak and warned of further rebellions at later stages of the parliamentary process unless the bill was changed to ensure European judges could not block deportation flights as they did in June last year.
“Let’s pick this up again in January. We will table amendments and we will take it from there,” Francois said.
The Rwanda Deal
Sunak’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, a small East African nation that is thousands of miles away from the UK and has a history of human rights abuses, has sparked outrage from human rights groups, legal experts, and opposition parties.
Sunak agreed to a new treaty with Rwanda last month, which he said would ensure the safety and dignity of the migrants, who would be given the option to either seek asylum in Rwanda, return to their home countries, or be resettled elsewhere.
But the deal has been shrouded in secrecy, with no details on how much it would cost, how many people it would affect, or what safeguards would be in place to protect the migrants from harm.
The challenge for Sunak is to find a solution that balances the interests of the UK, the migrants, and the international community, and that upholds the values and principles that the UK claims to stand for.
