U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak , on December 7, defended an updated plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, with a bill that designated Rwanda a ‘safe’ country and allowed ministers to disregard some sections of U.K. human rights law.
Mr Sunak’s vocal defence of the bill, which was unveiled on Wednesday, came as support for his leadership faltered, with Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick resigning because the proposed legislation was not tough enough and represented the “triumph of hope over experience”. If the bill fails when it is put to vote on December 12, it could leave Mr Sunak very vulnerable.
The U.K. Supreme Court had said in November that the government’s (former) Rwanda policy was unlawful after it determined that Rwanda was not a “safe” country for refugees and would result in the U.K running afoul of domestic and international human rights obligations.
Some 46,000 people crossed the English Channel in “small boats” in 2022, in an attempt to enter the U.K., according to the University of Oxford ‘s Migration Observatory. Mr Sunak had pledged to “stop the boats” during a January 2023 speech listing his priorities. Indians were the second largest group – after Afghans – crossing the Channel to enter the U.K. illegally in the first quarter of 2023.
The more right leaning among Conservatives , like Mr Jenrick, argued that the bill had not gone far enough in excluding the operation of relevant international human rights obligations such as the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The U.K.’s Human Rights Act (1998) makes the provisions of the convention valid in U.K. law.
A flight with asylum seekers failed to take off in June 2022 after the European Court of Human Rights intervened.
Addressing a press conference on December 7 morning, Mr Sunak emphasized the work-around human rights obligations saying that in the British system parliament was supreme. “
“Parliament is sovereign,” he said. “ It should be able to make decisions that cannot be undone in the courts,” Mr Sunak said as he read off a list of potential legal challenges as having been addressed by the new bill.
“We have blocked each and every avenue that anyone has ever used in the past to frustrate their removal,” he said.
Some Conservatives want the U.K. to leave the EHCR altogether.
Mr Sunak argued on Thursday that he had gone as far as possible without risking Rwanda pulling out of the deal. He said the the difference between him and those calling for more action was an “inch”.
“But that inch , by the way, is the difference between the Rwandans participating in this scheme and not,” he said.
Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman , who was sacked by Mr Sunak on November 13 and is a supporter of the U.K. leaving the ECHR, told the House of Commons on Wednesday that the Conservatives faced “electoral oblivion in a matter of months” if the bill did not pass.
