Sunak announces emergency law to prevent "a foreign court from blocking flights to Rwanda" following Supreme Court ruling
Hours after the ruling of the Supreme Court, which has considered illegal the plan to deport immigrants to Rwanda pending their asylum application, Rishi Sunak has announced the promotion of an emergency law in Parliament to prevent “a foreign court from block flights (with deported immigrants) to Rwanda”.
The 'premier' has warned that the same legislation will declare Rwanda as “a safe country” and that the United Kingdom will sign a new treaty with Kigali to support its plans.. Sunak has thus tried to quell the growing insurrection in his own ranks after the court decision.
Dozens of 'Tory' deputies, led by former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, immediately challenged the 'premier' and directly demanded the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) of 1950, signed by 47 countries. .
The five judges of the Supreme Court have questioned Rwanda's human rights record and have determined that the African country does not have “an adequate system to process asylum claims” and that, therefore, there is a risk of ill-treatment and repatriation of immigrants to their countries of origin, such as Syria or Afghanistan.
Before the announcement of the law, in an intervention in Parliament, Sunak assured that despite the setback suffered by the Government, the Supreme Court has implicitly recognized that “the principle of deporting immigrants is legal”. The prime minister has announced that his Government will sign a new treaty with Rwanda and will introduce the necessary changes to adapt national legislation and move forward with its plans.
“My commitment to stopping the boats (in the English Channel) is unbreakable,” stressed Sunak, who is however not willing to adopt the “nuclear option”, the exit from the ECHR, which his hard-wing deputies demand.
A cost of 160 million euros
The leader of the Labor opposition, Keir Starmer, has recalled how the 'Rwanda plan' has cost the British the equivalent of 160 million euros to date and accused Sunak of not having a 'plan B' ready.
Protest against the Government at the Supreme Court, in London.
The same accusation has been leveled against Sunak by Suella Braverman, dismissed on Monday in the Government crisis. The former Secretary of the Interior has joined her voice with those of the New Conservatives group, which demands the introduction of an emergency law to “immediately abandon the European Convention on Human Rights.”
“We are facing an absolutely existential decision for the future of the party,” warned New Conservatives co-founder Danny Kruger.. Former Brexit minister Jacob Rees-Mogg has joined the rebel Tories and described Braverman's dismissal and the decision not to go further to defend the 'Rwanda plan' as “a serious mistake”.
More than 45,000 immigrants crossed the English Channel in boats in 2022, the year in which Boris Johnson's Government had to cancel 'in extremis' the departure of the first plane heading to Rwanda with immigrants after the intervention of the European Court of Rights Humans.
The number of crossings has dropped this year to more than 25,000, mainly due to greater collaboration from the French authorities and the agreement with Albania to repatriate its citizens who arrive illegally on British shores.. In recent weeks, and despite the bad weather, crossings have increased and on Sunday 650 immigrants arrived in boats.
Several non-governmental organizations presented a first legal claim against the British Government in 2022 to stop deportations to Rwanda, paralyzed since then.. The British Government planned to charter the first plane with immigrants to Kigali before Christmas, in the event of having won the legal battle before the Supreme Court.