Britain’s parliament has passed a law that would see asylum seekers deported to Rwanda while they await a decision on their applications.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak vowed to tackle further challenges and push ahead with deportation flights to Rwanda after passing landmark migration legislation in a battle that exposed deep rifts in his Conservative Party.

“The passage of this landmark legislation is not just a step forward but a fundamental change in the global equation on migration,” Rishi Sunak said in a statement.

This dispute

The deportation proposal has been mired in controversy and legal battles since Boris Johnson unveiled it in 2022 when he was prime minister. So far, no migrants have been sent to Rwanda.

Last November, the UK Supreme Court declared the policy illegal and Rishi Sunak hopes the new law will override the legal concerns and fulfill his pledge to stop people coming across the Channel in small boats.

Rwanda, a small nation of 13 million people, claims to be one of the most stable countries in Africa. But rights groups accuse veteran President Paul Kagame of ruling in a climate of fear, stifling dissent and free speech.

Despite not being deported, Britain has paid Rwanda 240 million pounds. While Britain hopes to send thousands of migrants, Rwanda only has the capacity to take a few at the moment.

What was Britain’s Rwanda Plan?

The Rwanda Plan, agreed by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson in April 2022, is designed to stop migrants coming to Britain illegally and break the business model of people smugglers.

Under the plan, anyone who arrives in Britain illegally after January 1, 2022 will be deported to Rwanda.

However, the first deportation flight in June 2022 was blocked by European judges.

The UK Supreme Court subsequently unanimously upheld a ruling that the scheme was unlawful because migrants risked being sent back to their home countries or other countries where they would be at risk of ill-treatment.

What is Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda bill?

To address the issues raised by the Supreme Court, Rishi Sunak agreed to a new treaty with Rwanda that sought to prevent anyone from being sent anywhere other than back to Britain.

Rishi Sunak’s new law states that some of the UK’s existing human rights laws will not apply to the scheme. It limits individuals’ options for appeal to only exceptional cases.

Once the bill is passed into law – expected later this week – the government will be free to start detaining asylum seekers, a move that will trigger further legal challenges from charities, campaigners and unions that argue Rwanda is not a safe place.

However, some legal experts say that as with the bill, Britain would still be bound by the findings of the European Court of Human Rights which could again grant an injunction to block deportation flights.

Tens of thousands of migrants – many fleeing wars and poverty in Africa, the Middle East and Asia – have reached Britain in small boats across the English Channel on perilous journeys organized by people-smuggling gangs in recent years.

After becoming prime minister in October last year, Sunak made “stop the boats” one of his top five priorities.

Earlier in the year, Sunak said he had fulfilled a pledge to clear a so-called ‘legacy backlog’ of 92,000 asylum claims that were made before a June 2022 change to immigration laws, although figures show around 100,000 applications are still pending. .