British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged Monday that flights carrying asylum seekers would take off for Rwanda in July ‘no matter what’ as MPs were set to return a bill legalising the deportations back the House of Lords for a fifth time. Photo by Jason Alden/EPA-EFE/POOL
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged Monday that flights carrying asylum seekers would take off for Rwanda in July no matter what as Members of Parliament were set to return a bill legalizing the deportations back to the House of Lords for a fifth time.
Flights had been chartered and will take off in 10-12 weeks “no ifs, no buts,” Sunak told a news conference, warning that both houses of parliament would sit until his Safety of Rwanda Bill passed, all night if necessary. Advertisement
“Enough is enough. No more prevarication, no more delay. Parliament will sit there tonight and vote no matter how late it goes,” he said.
“Starting from the moment that the bill passes, we will begin the process of removing those identified for the first flight. We have prepared for this moment.”
Sunak announced a ramping up of the judicial system to quickly deal with any legal challenges brought by deportees or human rights groups with block booking of 25 courtrooms and 150 judges with 5,000 sitting days capacity. Advertisement
Detention spaces for potential deportees have been increased to 2,200 and 500 officials assigned to details tasked with escorting asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Since being sent to the House of Lords in late January, peers have repeatedly amended the bill only for the House of Commons to overturn their changes, with the deadlock threatening Sunak’s pledge to “stop the boats” used by people-smuggling gangs to bring tens of thousands of asylum seekers to Britain’s shores annually.
Sunak attacked opposition Labor and Lords for the hold-up saying they had conspired to do everything possible to delay the Rwanda scheme under which it is hoped the prospect of being sent to the East African country would deter asylum seekers from trying to enter Britain without advance permission.
“If Labor peers had not spent weeks holding up the bill in the House of Lords to try to block these flights altogether, we would have begun this process weeks ago,” Sunak said.
However, Sunak denied he had failed to deliver his promise that flights would begin in the Spring, saying that rather than getting off a single flight that would enable him to say he had met the target he wanted to establish a sustainable pattern of flights regularly taking off for Kigali. Advertisement
A major sticking point is the inclusion in the deportation scheme of Afghans who fought alongside British forces, mostly serving as interpreters, during the 15 years they were in Afghanistan from 2001 through 2014.
Under the legislation, these men and their families are treated like any other asylum seekers or migrants if they arrived in Britain via unofficial, irregular routes.
Labor pledged Monday to fight on and keep sending the bill back to the House of Commons until Afghan veterans were exempted.
“Our whip [party voting orders] will be on until it’s done,” an unnamed peer said.
The Safety of Rwanda Bill was introduced to parliament in December on the back of a hastily re-negotiated treaty with Rwanda implementing new safeguards after the Supreme Court ruled the previous month that the $175 million deportation scheme was illegal because Rwanda was not a safe country.
