2024-04-25 17:20:25
After months of wrangling, the British Parliament has passed a law that will allow asylum seekers to be deported to Rwanda. But the law could blow up in the government’s face.
Sascha Zastiral reports from London
The London government’s controversial plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda before their procedures have been completed have been causing controversy in Great Britain for years. The breakthrough came for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Tuesday night: the last opponents of the law that would enable deportations gave up their resistance in the House of Lords, the upper house of the British Parliament. The government wants to transport the first asylum seekers to the African country as early as July.
However, it is unlikely that the difficulties for the government in London will end there. On Tuesday morning, high-ranking representatives of the Council of Europe and the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR sharply criticized the new law. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights also expressed sharp criticism. All three experts called on the British government not to use the new powers it has given itself.
“The focus now is on getting flights in the air”
This is likely to fall on deaf ears. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed on Tuesday morning that his government would stick to the planned deportations to Rwanda. He tried to portray the measure as primarily intended to protect refugees: the deportations were intended to deter “at-risk migrants from risky crossings” and “destroy the business model of the criminal gangs” that exploited them. “Our focus now is on getting flights in the air and I am determined that nothing will stand in the way of us saving lives.”
No one doubts that the crossings across the English Channel, during which thousands of people enter Britain irregularly every year, are dangerous. Just on Tuesday morning, five people died during such a crossing, including a child. However, it is doubtful whether the deportation flights to Rwanda will deter refugees from the dangerous crossing. In addition, Sunak probably wants to use the deportations primarily to save his seriously ailing government.
Direct consequence of Brexit
The phenomenon of boat refugees is a direct consequence of leaving the EU. Since the end of the Brexit transition period at the beginning of 2021, Great Britain no longer has a refugee return agreement with its European neighbors. For a conservative government, which is also led by a long-time Brexit supporter, Sunak, the boats are a massive image problem. Especially since Sunak has made stopping the boats one of his top priorities.
Sunak inherited the controversial plans from his predecessor Boris Johnson. He announced this in April 2022 – just at the time when he was resisting calls for his resignation after a series of scandals. The then Interior Minister Priti Patel and Rwanda’s Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta signed a corresponding agreement shortly afterwards.
“Step towards totalitarianism”
However, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg stopped the first planned flight in June of the same year. British courts began to deal with the planned deportations. The Supreme Court in London, the highest court in the country, declared the plans illegal last November. The judges criticized, among other things, that no proper assessment had been made of whether Rwanda was safe for refugees.
Rishi Sunak’s government then signed a slightly modified agreement with the government in Kigali in December. And she initiated the controversial law that now comes into force. And this law has it all.
Because it unilaterally determines that Rwanda is a safe third country – and thus contradicts the decision of the Supreme Court. The law also stipulates that courts dealing with deportation decisions are no longer allowed to consider whether Rwanda is a safe country or not. Critics see the planned law as an authoritarian intervention in the independence of the judiciary. Lawyer Alex Carlile, who sits as an independent member of the upper house, described the government’s plans as a “step towards totalitarianism” during a debate.