UK Parliament approves controversial Rwanda deportation bill

Controversial plans by the UK government to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda passed their final hurdle on Monday, following a lengthy battle between the upper and lower chambers of parliament that stretched into the late hours of the night. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that deportation flights would commence in July.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his Conservative government have been pushing for legislation that would require judges to consider Rwanda as a safe third country. They also aim to grant decision-makers handling asylum applications the authority to overlook certain aspects of international and domestic human rights laws to circumvent a UK Supreme Court ruling that deeming migrants for a one-way journey to Kigali was unlawful.
However, the government encountered resistance in parliament, particularly from the House of Lords, which scrutinizes bills. The Lords repeatedly sent the proposed legislation back to the House of Commons with amendments, criticizing the bill as insufficient. Notably, they sought a provision stating that Rwanda could only be deemed safe once an independent monitoring body confirmed it. They also pushed for exemptions for individuals such as agents, allies, and employees of the UK overseas, including Afghans who served alongside British armed forces, to prevent their removal.
Following the bill’s passage through parliament, Europe’s highest rights body urged Britain to abandon the contentious plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda. Michael O’Flaherty, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, called on the UK government to halt deportations under the Rwanda policy and reverse the legislation’s encroachment on judicial independence.