Richard Pohle / AFP
Rwanda: Lords slam Rishi Sunak and his controversial project (Photo of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak)
Rwanda – The British Lords expressed their displeasure on Monday evening, January 22, over Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s controversial plan to deport migrants to Rwanda, opposing the ratification of a treaty signed with Kigali, which must support its future legislation.
A majority of representatives sitting in the upper house of parliament have asked the government to postpone ratification of the treaty until it can effectively demonstrate that Rwanda is a safe host country for migrants who will be expelled.
214 The Lords thus followed the recommendation of the Transpartisan Committee, which, in a report published last week, considered that the guarantee given by the Treaty “incomplete”While 171 of them opposed the proposal.
A project was decided “ Illegal ยป
The Conservative government’s bill, based on this treaty, is the basis of the government’s policy to combat illegal immigration.
The text, signed in December with Kigali, is believed to be in fact a response to the concerns of the British Supreme Court, which outlawed the project in its previous version for fear that asylum seekers would be transferred to other countries where they would be at risk. .
It is the Conservative government’s last card to save the iconic project, which was repeatedly defeated by former prime minister Boris Johnson after its announcement in 2022.
New difficulties are coming
The House of Commons, where elected MPs sit, adopted it last week by a comfortable majority, after fierce scrutiny from the Conservative Party’s right to tighten the text and the resignation of some of its officials.
In the process, Rishi Sunak also urged the Lords to adopt the project as quickly as possible, strongly criticized by humanitarian organizations, which he hopes to implement before the assembly elections scheduled for late 2024.
Unlike the elected members of the House of Commons, the Lords do not have the power to block the ratification of a treaty. But the vote on the proposal, to which the government will have to respond, suggests new difficulties for the controversial bill.
The text, which defines Rwanda as a safe third country and prevents migrants from returning to their countries of origin, is due to be debated in the upper house of the British Parliament next week.
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