British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s latest attempt to send some migrants to Rwanda finally won approval from parliament early Tuesday, when he promised deportation flights would begin in July.

The parliamentary logjam that had stalled the legislation for two months finally broke just after midnight when the unelected House of Lords “recognized the primacy” of the elected House of Commons and rejected its last proposed amendments, That cleared the way for the bill. become law

Earlier in the day, Sunk held a rare morning press conference to demand that the Lords stop blocking his key proposal to end the flow of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats, promising That both Houses of Parliament shall remain in session until it is approved. .

The legislative stalemate was the latest hurdle to delay implementation of a plan that has been repeatedly blocked by a series of court rulings and protests from human rights activists who say it is illegal and inhumane. Immigrant advocates have vowed to continue the fight against it.

“For almost two years, our adversaries have used every trick in the book to stop the fighting and keep the boats coming,” Sunak told reporters in London on Monday morning. “But enough is enough. No more hiccups, no more delays.”

The government is planning to deport Rwandans who pose a barrier to migrants entering the UK illegally who risk their lives in the hope they can claim asylum after arriving in Britain. will be able to

Tim Bell, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said that even with parliament’s approval of the law, further court challenges could still delay deportation flights.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily home and dry,” he said. “We will see some attempts to legally stop deportations.”

Sunk has staked his political future on the deportation flights, pledging to make “stopping the boats” a key part of the campaign for voters as opinion polls show his Conservative Party is on the brink of a landslide later this year. Ahead of the general election, Labor is well behind the party. . Next week’s local elections are being seen as a barometer of how parties will fare in the general elections.

The debate in Britain comes as countries across Western Europe and North America look for ways to slow the rising number of migrants driven by war, climate change and political oppression.

Small boat crossings are a powerful political issue in Britain, where they are seen as evidence of the government’s failure to control immigration.

The number of migrants arriving in Britain on small boats will rise to 45,774 in 2022 from just 299 four years ago as asylum seekers pay criminal gangs thousands of pounds to ferry them across the Channel.

Last year, small boat arrivals fell to 29,437 as the government cracked down on people smugglers and reached an agreement to send Albanians back to their country.

“I think the most important takeaway is how desperate the government is obviously to get this piece of legislation through on the basis that it pays the minimum on its promise to stop the boats,” Bayley said. will enable,” said Belle.

While Sunak admitted he would not meet his original deadline of getting the first deportation flights in the air this spring, he blamed the delay on continued opposition from the opposition Labor Party.

On Monday, Sunak said the first flights would begin in 10-12 weeks but declined to give details on how many people would be deported or when the flights would take place because he said the information was an attempt to derail the policy to opponents. Can help keep up. .

In preparation for the bill’s passage, the government has already chartered planes for deportation flights, expanded detention facilities, hired more immigration caseworkers and freed up court space to handle appeals, Sunak said. is

He also suggested the government was prepared to ignore the European Court of Human Rights if it tried to block deportations.

“We are ready, the plans are in place, and these flights will be anything,” Sunak said. “No foreign court will stop us from stopping flights.”

The current legislation, called the Safety of Rwanda Bill, is a response to a UK Supreme Court ruling that halted deportation flights because the government could not guarantee the safety of migrants sent to Rwanda. After signing a new treaty with Rwanda to increase security for migrants, the government proposed new legislation declaring Rwanda a safe country.

The bill has stalled in the idiom of the British legislative system. The House of Lords is charged with scrutinizing measures approved by the House of Commons and offering amendments, but does not have the power to block legislation directly.

As a result, the Rwanda Bill bounced back and forth between the two houses of Parliament, with the Lords repeatedly offering amendments only to have them rejected by the Commons, which then sent the legislation back to the upper house.

Critics of the government’s policy refused to be drawn on its next move. James Wilson, director of Detention Action, which campaigns against human rights abuses in the immigration system, urged the public to look past the political stalemate and remember what is at stake.

“Ultimately, the most important points here are not in and out of Parliament, and the things that are happening there,” he told The Associated Press. “Ultimately, it’s about people. It’s about people’s lives.”