Sub-Saharan Africa
Sputnik brings you all the most recent information, major events, heroes and views, including breaking news, images, videos, analyses, and features.

UK House of Lords 'Defeats' PM Sunak by Sending Scheme to Deport Migrants to Rwanda for Review

© AFP 2023 DANIEL LEALUK sends migrants to Rwanda
UK sends migrants to Rwanda - Sputnik Africa, 1920, 05.03.2024
Subscribe
The UK's plan to send some asylum seekers who arrive in the UK by crossing the English Channel to Rwanda for processing has sparked a lot of debate and criticism, and has been repeatedly delayed by legal challenges.
The House of Lords, the upper house of the British Parliament, has voted to introduce stricter safeguards into a scheme devised by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to send asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda.
Specifically, the House voted in favor of an amendment stating that the legislation must be in full compliance with international and domestic law, as well as an amendment requiring proof that Rwanda is safe for refugees before planes can leave the country.
The Lords also backed an amendment that would mean flights could not begin until a treaty providing legal safeguards in Rwanda's asylum system is fully implemented.

British media characterized the vote as "the first defeats on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's government as it tries to pass controversial legislation."

The media added that the vote by the Lords, where the ruling Tories do not have a majority, in favor of the amendments means that a process called "ping-pong" will be triggered, in which a bill will be passed between the House of Commons and the Lords until an agreement is reached.
On January 18, the Sunak's plan was approved by the House of Commons.
 People thought to be migrants who undertook the crossing from France in small boats and were picked up in the Channel, arrive to be disembarked from a small transfer boat which ferried them from a larger British border force vessel that didn't come into the port, in Dover, south east England, Friday, June 17, 2022.  - Sputnik Africa, 1920, 20.12.2023
Sub-Saharan Africa
'Very Paradoxical': Inside the Controversy of Britain's Rwanda Asylum Plan
Sunak said that he wants the first deportation flights to leave in the next few months - before a general election expected in the second half of this year - so he can make good on his promise to curb the migration, the so-called "stop the boats."
The UK and Rwanda signed a migration agreement in 2022 under which people identified by the UK government as undocumented migrants or asylum seekers will be deported to Rwanda for processing, asylum and resettlement.
The plan has drawn criticism from human rights organizations and some politicians, who believe the measure will not help stem the flow of migrants. The first deportation of migrants from the UK to Rwanda was scheduled to take place on June 14, 2022. However, the flight was canceled at the last minute due to the European Court of Human Rights ruling.

In late June 2023, the UK Court of Appeal ruled that London's plan to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda was unlawful, leading to an appeal by the UK Home Office to reconsider the decision.

On November 15, 2023, the UK Supreme Court ruled the plan illegal, however, in early December, UK Home Secretary James Cleverly signed a new agreement with Rwanda on cooperation against irregular migration.
Newsfeed
0