Britain's bill to deport migrants to Rwanda enters a delicate stage for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Tuesday, as his camp threatens to tear itself apart over the controversial bill. According to the UN, the draft, including its latest version, is "not compatible" with international law. It "does not meet the required standards of legality for the transfer of asylum seekers," the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday.
Intended to respond to the objections of the Supreme Court, which blocked a previous version of the bill in November, the text cleared a first hurdle in Parliament in December. It is now back in committee, with lively debates expected on many amendments. Things are getting tougher for Rishi Sunak, who has made the deportation to Rwanda of migrants who arrived illegally on British soil at the heart of his migration policy. This is a high-risk gamble at the start of an election year when the Conservatives are unable to reduce the gap in the polls and are ahead of the Labour opposition led by Keir Starmer by about twenty points.
The right wing of the Tories is in ambush to try to toughen up a text that is too watered down in its eyes, via amendments, supported by some sixty MPs according to the British press. Some Conservative MPs, for example, want to completely eliminate the possibility of recourse for deported migrants. After facing scathing criticism from his former Home Secretary Suella Braverman and the resignation of his Immigration Secretary Robert Jenrick, Rishi Sunak is now also facing the rebellion of two Conservative Party deputy chairs, Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith. They announced on Monday night that they would support the amendments demanded by the right wing of the party. But a too radical hardening of the text risks being to the detriment of the support of moderate conservatives.
«End of the legal merry-go-round»
As the amendments are unlikely to be adopted, it is during the next vote in the House of Commons that things are likely to get really complicated for Rishi Sunak, if the right wing of the party follows through on the threat of a revolt it has been waving for weeks. "I know everyone is unhappy - I'm unhappy about the situation - and wants to see an end to the legal merry-go-round," Rishi Sunak said on Monday, showing his determination to see the project through.
Announced in April 2022 by Boris Johnson's Conservative government, the project was never implemented. A first plane was blocked at the last minute by a decision of the European court, then the British court, all the way to the Supreme Court, declared the project illegal. In an attempt to save the text, the government signed a new treaty with Rwanda. It is backed by a new bill that defines Rwanda as a safe third country and prevents the return of migrants to their countries of origin.
It also proposes that certain provisions of the UK's Human Rights Act should not be applied to evictions, in order to limit legal remedies. Nearly 30,000 migrants illegally crossed the Channel in 2023 on small boats, down sharply from the record of 2022,45 in 000. Five migrants died over the weekend as they tried to reach a boat in the sea in freezing water.