Announced two years ago by the conservative government of Rishi Sunak, this highly controversial law is presented as a flagship measure of its policy to combat illegal immigration.
Correspondent in London
After two years of political and judicial guerrilla warfare and weeks of ping-pong between the two assemblies, the Rwanda law was finally voted on in the night from Monday to Tuesday in the Commons. This text should allow the expulsion to this Central African country of asylum seekers who entered the United Kingdom illegally. This is the government’s flagship measure in its fight against illegal immigration. And a strong electoral stake at a time when the British Prime Minister needs to restore his image before a general election which looks bad for him.
In recent weeks, the bill has been shuttled between the Upper House and the Commons. Members of the House of Lords, where the Conservatives do not have a majority, were trying to soften the law with a series of amendments. They demanded in particular that Afghans who had worked for British troops could not be expelled in this way and that an independent body determine whether Rwanda is a safe country or not. They finally agreed not to modify the text any further. “The passage of this historic legislation is not just a step forward but a fundamental shift in the global migration equationsaid Rishi Sunak, this plan must deter vulnerable migrants from undertaking perilous crossings and break the business model of the criminal gangs who exploit them”.
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Rishi Sunak lamented that the law was further delayed due to this opposition from the Lords. A little earlier in the day, the Prime Minister had admitted that the promise to start this plan in the spring would not be kept and that it would be in July. The first asylum seekers expelled from the kingdom will take off for Rwanda “within ten to twelve weeks” he assured. “We are ready, these flights will take off, whatever happens” he insisted. The Prime Minister said that commercial charter planes and hundreds of qualified people were ready to transport asylum seekers – for whom 2,200 detention places are planned – to Africa and that an airfield had been reserved for this purpose. Recently, the possibility of using aircraft used contractually by the Ministry of Defense was raised, although airlines did not seem to be very interested in such flights.
“Stop the boat”
By expelling migrants who arrived illegally in the country towards Central Africa, the conservative government intends to dissuade them from attempting the English adventure. “The success of this deterrence cannot rest on a single flight, explained Rishi Sunak, who ensured that the pace of multiple flights each month would be maintained until the boats were stopped”. “Stop the boat” is the government’s big slogan on immigration. According to the latest Home Office figures, 6,265 people arrived in the country illegally by crossing the Channel on small boats, an increase of 25% compared to the same period last year.
The Rwanda plan has already made several false starts. It was launched with a bang in April 2022 by Boris Johnson. The idea was to send migrants who arrived illegally – whatever their origin – 6,000 kilometers from the kingdom and have them apply for asylum in Kigali. As part of this agreement, running over five years, a payment of 140 million pounds from London to Rwanda was planned, the sum to be allocated to development aid and the care of expelled migrants. This arrangement immediately sparked intense controversy, with many voices deeming it both impractical and expensive. This did not prevent Rishi Sunak from taking it up when he came to power.
A major political issue
As early as June 2022, a first flight to take migrants to Central Africa was canceled at the last moment following a decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The following December, the High Court in London ruled that the project was legal. But in June 2023, British justice gave a second blow. And last November, the Court of Appeal ruled the project ” illegal “, estimating that migrants were exposed to the risk of expulsion from Rwanda to their country of origin where they risk persecution. The new text aims to respond to this last point, by defining Rwanda as a safe third country.
If I have to choose between the security of our borders and belonging to a foreign jurisdiction, I will of course always give priority to our national security
Rishi Sunak, British Prime Minister
Migrants will only be able to appeal an expulsion on the basis of “irrefutable evidence” that they risk serious harm in Rwanda, and not on the basis of general assertions about the security of the country. The text also stipulates that the government will be able to override a possible injunction from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to avoid expulsions. “No foreign court will stop us from getting the planes off the ground” assured Rishi Sunak. He refused to rule out the possibility of leaving the ECHR if necessary. “If I have to choose between the security of our borders and belonging to a foreign jurisdiction, I will of course always give priority to our national security” did he declare.
For Rishi Sunak’s conservatives, the political stakes are major. Struggling in the polls, they need results to show before the general elections scheduled for this fall, in which Labor is given the victory. While the Tories had made the resumption of control of migratory flows their hobby horse, the figures for the moment reflect a failure. After reaching a record in 2022, with 45,000 crossings, then falling in 2023 with some 30,000 arrivals, the number of people having crossed the Channel illegally is increasing again. The recent increase is mainly due to Vietnamese migrants taken into the hands of criminal gangs.
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On this migratory front, Rishi Sunak found himself attacked on his right as well as on his left. The Tories’ right-wing aides found the text too soft while the party’s centrists and the opposition considered it too radical and risked contravening international commitments on human rights. Labor reiterated its opposition to the plan on Monday. The MP in charge of immigration within the opposition party, Yvette Cooper, again considered it too costly not to concern “only 1% of asylum seekers” present in the country. That’s more than half a billion pounds to send just 300 people to Kigali.
