Rishi Sunak’s efforts to pass the bill had been stuck between opposition in the Houses of Parliament and challenges in the British courts, as lawmakers and activists have sought to scupper the legislation on human rights grounds.
London: In a landmark achievement, the UK government on Monday passed the contentious bill, allowing the government to send asylum seekers to Rwanda for their claims to be considered by the East African nation, reported CNN. It should be noted at this time that UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s efforts to pass the bill had been stuck between opposition in the Houses of Parliament and challenges in the British courts, as lawmakers and activists have sought to scupper the legislation on human rights grounds.
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Moreover, Sunak’s inability to implement the policy has caused considerable embarrassment, as the British government has sent millions of pounds to Rwanda to fund a scheme that has failed to deliver any results to date, CNN reported.
It has been designed to prevent irregular migration into the UK, particularly people travelling on illegal and dangerous small boats from France, arranged by criminal gangs.
Meanwhile, in theory, the legislation will see some landing in the UK sent to Rwanda where their asylum claim will be considered. If their claim is accepted, they will stay in Rwanda. If it is declined, the bill says they cannot be deported by Rwanda to anywhere other than the UK, though it is unclear what would ultimately happen in this scenario.
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The scheme was first conceived in 2022 when, Sunak, who became prime minister then, made it the mission of his government to put a stop to these arrivals by following through on a Conservative pledge to “stop the boats”.
Two years after the scheme was first conceived, the absence of any deportations so far has been considered a major failure for Sunak, CNN reported.
Last year, the Supreme Court of the UK ruled that the policy is unlawful “because there are substantial grounds for believing that asylum seekers would face a real risk of ill-treatment by reason of refoulement to their country of origin if they were removed to Rwanda.”
Refoulement is the practice where asylum seekers or refugees are forcibly returned to a place where they would face persecution or danger, against important principles of international human rights law.
The judges noted that as recently as 2021, the UK government criticized Rwanda for “extrajudicial killings, deaths in custody, enforced disappearances and torture.”
The government responded by introducing the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill in January of this year, which effectively enshrines in UK law that Rwanda is a safe country, overriding the judges’ concerns.
(With Inputs From ANI)
