UK Parliament Approves Rwanda Deportation Bill

After fighting for almost two years, UK parliament approves Rwanda Deportation bill, as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announces.

LONDON — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s latest attempt to repatriate some migrants to Rwanda was eventually approved by Parliament early Tuesday, hours after he promised deportation flights would begin in July.

The parliamentary impasse that had blocked the legislation for two months was finally overcome just after midnight, when the unelected House of Lords “recognized the primacy” of the elected House of Commons and abandoned the last of its proposed amendments, allowing the measure to become law.

Earlier in the day, Sunak held a rare morning press conference to urge that the Lords stop obstructing his major idea for stemming the flood of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats. He promised that both chambers of Parliament will remain in session until they are approved.

The legislative impasse was only the latest roadblock to the implementation of a scheme that has been repeatedly thwarted by court rulings and criticism from human rights organizations, who claim it is unconstitutional and inhumane. Migrant supporters have promised to continue fighting it.

Prime Minster Rishi Sunak’s Final Thoughts

“For almost two years, our opponents have used every trick in the book to block fights and keep the boats coming,” Sunak told reporters in London on Monday morning. “But it is enough. There will be no more prevarication or delays.” The government intends to deport to Rwanda some of the individuals who enter the United Kingdom illegally as a deterrence to migrants who risk their lives in leaky, inflatable boats in the hopes that they will be able to claim asylum once they get to England.

Despite Parliament’s approval of the legislation, Tim Bale, a politics professor at Queen Mary University of London, believes that further court challenges could delay the deportation flights.

“I don’t think it is necessarily home and dry,” he told me. “We will see some attempts to block deportations legally.” Sunak has staked his political future on deportation flights, making a pledge to “stop the boats” a key part of his campaign pitch to voters as polls show his Conservative Party trailing far behind the Labour Party ahead of a general election later this year. Next week’s local elections are viewed as a predictor of how the parties will perform in the general election.

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