The UK government is working on a new agreement with Rwanda to transport migrants to the East African country, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said, commenting on Wednesday's court ruling that the UK legislation was illegal.
"We’ve been working on a new international treaty with Rwanda and we will ratify it without delay," Sunak wrote on X.
The Prime Minister emphasized that although Rwanda is not recognized as a safe country to deport migrants, the Supreme Court has confirmed that "removing asylum seekers to a third safe country is lawful."
The Prime Minister announced that flights from the UK will begin to send illegal migrants to Rwanda in the spring of 2024.
Sunak also said that he was ready to change the country's laws and review its membership in international conventions "to remove the obstacles in our way."
"If the ECHR chooses to intervene against parliament, I am prepared to do whatever is necessary to get flights off," the prime minister claimed.
The government's plan to send migrants to Rwanda has drawn sharp criticism in the kingdom.
The opposition Labor Party labeled Sunak's migrant eviction scheme a "complete failure" after the Supreme Court ruling. In addition, Yvette Cooper, Labor's home affairs spokeswoman, blasted newly appointed Home Secretary James Cleverly for his change of heart on the project.
"I don’t believe the new home secretary ever believed in the Rwanda plan. He distanced himself from it and his predecessor’s language on it. He may even on occasion have privately called it ‘batshit’," she reportedly told the Commons.
Irregular migration has been a pressing issue for the UK for many years, and it has only escalated following the country's exit from the European Union in 2020. In August 2022, more than 13,500 people crossed the Channel to enter the UK illegally, the highest monthly total since the migration crisis began in 2019.
To address the conundrum, in April 2022, the UK and Rwanda signed a migration agreement under which individuals recognized by the UK government as undocumented migrants or asylum seekers would be deported to Rwanda for documentation, asylum, and resettlement.
The first deportation of migrants to Rwanda was scheduled for June 14, 2022. However, the flight was cancelled at the last minute after the ECHR upheld an appeal by all the asylum seekers on board.
In March 2023, the British government introduced a bill to relocate migrants who entered the UK illegally by boat across the Channel to a "safe third country" such as Rwanda. However, 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.