Parliament votes in favor of the controversial government plan to deport refugees and migrants to Rwanda following a protracted battle between the House of Lords and the House of Commons.
The contentious proposals of the UK government to deport migrants and refugees to Rwanda have been approved by Parliament following an all-night battle between the House of Lords and the House of Commons.
After repeatedly sending the proposals back to the lower house with adjustments made by the unelected members of the upper house, which reviews proposed legislation, they finally decided early on Tuesday not to make any more changes, meaning the bill will now become law.
Within ten to twelve weeks, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged to begin transporting asylum seekers to Rwanda.
In an attempt to turn around his Conservative Party’s declining prospects ahead of an election later this year, Sunak announced that the government has hired personnel and reserved commercial charter planes to transport migrants to Rwanda.
After a protracted refusal to support the divisive law without further safeguards, the House of Lords finally gave up after Sunak threatened to force Parliament to convene as late into Monday night as needed to adopt it.
“There are no buts or ifs. “These flights are headed to Rwanda,” Sunak stated earlier on Monday at a press briefing.
In recent years, tens of thousands of migrants and refugees have riskily crossed the English Channel in small boats to reach Britain. Many of them are escaping violence and poverty in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
The government prioritizes stopping the flow, but some claim it is cruel to send them to Rwanda instead of processing asylum claims here.
They raise concerns about the human rights record of the East African nation and the possibility that asylum seekers would be repatriated to dangerous places.
In an attempt to overturn a verdict by the Supreme Court that deemed the plan illegal, Sunak has passed a new law declaring that certain human rights statutes that now exist in the UK would not apply to the scheme and that British judges must consider Rwanda as a safe destination.
Additionally, it restricts people’s ability to appeal to only the most unusual situations.
Germany and Austria, among other European nations, are considering arrangements to handle asylum seekers abroad.
SOURCE: TRTWORLD
