The Conservative government’s ‘Rwanda plan,’ designed to deter illegal Channel crossings by sending migrants to the African nation for processing, is finally to become law. That is, two years after the scheme was announced and five months after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak introduced “emergency” legislation.
The matter was settled late on Monday when the House of Lords, Parliament’s upper chamber, dropped its opposition to the plans and gave up on forcing through two amendments.
Journalists across the land will be lost without their daily dose of Rwanda plan news. Although the story, you’ll be so pleased to note, is still far from over.
Before anything else can happen, the British taxpayer must hand another £50 million (€58 million) to Rwanda to sweeten the deal, taking the reported total to £340 million (€394 million) to date.
And then will come the legal challenges. The first flight which was supposed to send just seven migrants to Rwanda back in June 2022 was cancelled at the last minute due to an intervention from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Now, The Times reports that the FDA union, which represents senior civil servants, is expected to launch a judicial review arguing that the soon-to-be Rwanda Act’s power to disregard interim ECHR rulings would amount to telling civil servants to break international law.
Meanwhile, lawyers have also told The Guardian that they are preparing to launch legal challenges against deportations on a case-by-case basis.
Sunak himself reckons that the first flight will take off “in 10 to 12 weeks,” missing the previous spring target. He admitted that this was “later than we wanted,” but noted that after this point, there will be a “regular rhythm of multiple flights every month over the summer and beyond until the boats are stopped.” Working towards this end, migrants who could be deported are expected to be identified and possibly even detained within the coming days.
Pointing to the likelihood of British courts grounding potential flights by arguing that they contradict the UK Human Rights Act, former UKIP leader Nigel Farage described the Rwanda plan as “another con job from the Tories.”
The Migration Watch UK think tank added that while the government’s plan may have a “small deterrent” effect on illegal migration, ministers ought really to “amend or abolish the Human Rights Act” if they are serious about cutting down numbers.
And as the media classes talked up the importance of Sunak’s Rwanda plan passing through Parliament, French emergency services reported on Tuesday that at least five migrants, including a child, died after their dinghy capsized in an attempt to travel across the Channel, pointing to the tragic cost of failing to stop the crossings.
The bill is expected to receive Royal Assent in the coming days, officially passing it into law.
