UK government’s controversial illegal immigration plan to become law

LONDON, July 18 (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s controversial plan to make it easier to send asylum seekers to Rwanda will become law after the government defeated attempts by the upper house of parliament to make changes to the legislation.

The Illegal Migration Bill had been bogged down in a battle between Parliament’s House of Commons and the House of Lords, Britain’s unelected upper house, which had made changes to legislation to dilute it.

In the early hours of Tuesday, the last of those proposed changes was rejected. You can now go for royal assent, where the king formally approves it and it becomes law.

The plan to deport asylum seekers has been criticized by some opposition politicians, lawyers and civil rights groups as inhumane, cruel and ineffective.

United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said on Tuesday that the passage of the bill raises “very serious legal concerns” and sets “a troubling precedent for the dismantling of asylum-related obligations” that other countries they can follow.

However, deportation flights to Rwanda are unlikely to start until next year at the earliest and will still depend on a Supreme Court ruling on their legality later this year.

The new legislation is at the heart of the government’s promise to prevent asylum seekers from making the dangerous journey from France to England’s south coast in small, often unseaworthy boats.

It will prevent most people from applying for asylum in Britain without permission and deport them to their home country or to a supposedly safe country like Rwanda.

Among the amendments proposed and eventually defeated in the House of Lords were a demand for shorter terms for the detention of unaccompanied children, greater protections for victims of modern slavery and six-month delays in deporting migrants.

Britain reached an initial 140 million pound ($180 million) deal with the East African country last year, but the policy has been tied up in court. Rwanda’s first planned deportation flight was blocked a year ago in a last-minute ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.

The passage of the bill coincided with the arrival of a barge to house immigrants off the south coast of England. The government has defended the use of barges, insisting that it is a cheaper alternative to hotels.

Last year a record 45,755 people came to Britain by small boat across the Channel, mainly from France. This year more than 12,000 have arrived, a rate similar to that of 2022.

Reporting by Kylie MacLellan and Andrew MacAskill; Edited by Kate Holton and Angus MacSwan

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