Migrants say threat of being flown to Rwanda won't deter them

People planning to cross the Channel in small boats and enter Britain illegally from France have insisted they will not be put off by the threat of being flown to Rwanda.

Rishi Sunak is preparing to try to force the Rwanda plan through Parliament – warning he is ready to make MPs and peers sit through the night to finally make a breakthrough on new laws.

The showdown comes after the House of Lords again refused to back down last week, passing more amendments to the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill despite MPs repeatedly dismissing their objections.

Yet would-be asylum seekers camping out in Dunkirk, in the north of France, today insisted they would keep coming back even if sent to Rwanda whose government has negotiated a multi-million-pound deal with Britain to process claims.

Their defiance came as former Home Secretary Suella Braverman also warned the bill was not strong enough to be an effective deterrent.

People at a migrant camp in Dunkirk, northern France, have insisted today the threat of being put on flights to Rwanda to have their asylum applications processed would not put them off

Rishi Sunak is preparing to make MPs and peers sit through the night to break an impasse over legislation to approve his government’s Rwanda bill aimed at stopping small boat crossings

One migrant from Africa at a camp in Dunkirk told BBC Breakfast: ‘My neighbouring country is Rwanda, so if I knew Rwanda was a safe country then I would’ve gone there because they’re my neighbours.

‘Because I know that Rwanda can never be safe for me, that’s why I risk myself to come through sea and that’s why I’m here.’

Another told how he would try again to get to the UK even if put on a flight to Rwanda, saying: ‘Maybe when I will go to Rwanda again – it’s difficult. I will come again. I will keep on, the struggle.’

A third said: ‘I try my chance – if I was safe or not, if I go to Rwanda or Africa, it’s no matter to me. But first I want to go to the UK – it’s important.’

Rosie, a 16-year-old from South Sudan, told the programme: ‘I’m worried, but nothing I can do – God save us.’

Ms Braverman told ITV’s Good Morning Britain she agreed with the principle of the proposed bill but thought the government’s approach did not go far enough.

She said: ‘I believe the bill is fatally flawed – that’s why I took the decision earlier this year to vote against it – I don’t believe it’s going to provide the deterrent that we need to stop the boats.

‘What we need to see is regular flights being sent off to Rwanda with large numbers of illegal migrants on those flights.

‘That’s how we send a message to the people-smuggling gangs, to those who are seeking to come here illegally, that they won’t get a life in the UK by doing so.

One would-be asylum seeker at a camp in Dunkirk, northern France, insisted Rwanda was not a safe country for migrants

He told BBC Breakfast he was willing to take the ‘risk’ of crossing the Channel to Britain instead

Another vowed to ‘keep on’ coming to the UK even if put on a flight to Rwanda first

DOMINIC LAWSON: Blockers in the Lords must now drop their insincere objections and pass the Rwanda bill today – the real battle to get flights off the ground is yet to begin 

‘I do maintain Rwanda is a safe country. The principle of the scheme is something I support – I do believe by getting regular flights off to Rwanda we will stop the boats.

‘That’s how, largely, the Australians were able to stop their illegal maritime migration problem, by sending people off-shore.

‘So I do agree with the principle – what I disagree with is how the government, this government, is going about delivering that scheme.’

She also reiterated her call for Britain to withdraw from the European Court of Human Rights which she blamed for blocking previous Rwanda flights.

She said: ‘This is our third bill, this is our third act of Parliament. The government has tried to do this within the confines of the European Convention on Human Rights and it’s not worked.

‘I believe now the only way to actually ensure that flights can go off, boats can be stopped and we can actually take back control of our borders and laws is to leave the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights.

‘We saw in June 2022 how the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg intervened to block the flights from taking off.

‘That’s an example, one of many examples, of how interventionist this court is – how interventionist and obstructive the European Court of Human Rights is.’

The UK’s Supreme Court has deemed Rwanda an unsafe country for sending migrants to, citing government crackdowns on critics and media, a lack of independence among judges and lawyers and high rejections of asylum claims.

Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman says the proposed bill is not enough of a deterrent

Rish Sunak, speaking last Friday, vowed to force through the Rwanda plans tonight

READ MORE: Fears Rwanda flights will fail if migrants disappear en masse to avoid being deported from the UK 

Mr Sunak is expected to deliver a message to peers this morning that his patience has run out, with his pledge to ‘stop the boats’ on the line.

In a round of interviews, deputy Foreign Secretary Andrew Mitchell upped the ante by branding peers’ resistance to sending asylum seekers to Rwanda ‘patronising’ and said such criticisms at times ‘border on racism’.

The proposed law aims to send some asylum seekers on a one-way trip to Kigali in order to deter people from crossing the Channel in small boats.

The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill and a new treaty are intended to prevent further legal challenges to the stalled asylum scheme after the Supreme Court ruled the plan was unlawful.

As well as compelling judges to regard the east African country as safe, it would give ministers the power to ignore emergency injunctions.

Despite MPs overturning previous changes by the upper chamber, last week peers renewed their demand that Rwanda cannot be treated as a safe country until an independent monitoring body has verified that protections contained in the treaty are implemented.

The provision would also allow the Secretary of State to effectively pull the plug on the scheme if the promised safeguards were not maintained.

The Lords also reinserted an exemption from removal for those who worked with the UK military or Government overseas, such as Afghan interpreters.

Mr Mitchell rejected the calls for Afghans to get special treatment.

Deputy Foreign Secretary Andrew Mitchell called peers blocking Rwanda flights ‘patronising’

A boat of migrants is seen being picked up by Border Force officials in the English Channel pm April 14

Suella Braverman told ITV’s Good Morning Britain today the UK should leave the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg

She was questioned by presenters Richard Madeley and Susanna Reid over her opposition to the Government’s proposed Rwanda bill

READ MORE: No10 refuses to commit to Rwanda flights taking off this Spring after ‘cynical’ peers delay Bill again 

He insisted there was a ‘safe and legal route’ available to them to come to the UK and urged the House of Lords to ‘accept the will’ of the House of Commons and the British people.

Mr Mitchell told Times Radio: ‘We have an absolute obligation to Afghan interpreters, people who served the British Army, served our country during the Afghan crisis.

‘But I’m pleased to say that thanks to the scheme that the Government set up, the Arap (Afghan relocations and assistance policy) scheme, something like 16,100 Afghans have been given settlement in the UK.

‘So I don’t think this amendment is necessary, there is already a safe and legal route for Afghan interpreters and others who served the Army.’

Mr Mitchell said he hoped the Lords would ‘accept the will of the elected House now and let the Bill proceed’ as ‘that is what the British people want’.

If MPs remove those amendments tonight, they would send the bill immediately back to the Upper House – and continue to sit until peers accept.

If peers pass the same amendment twice, the Commons faces the choice of either accepting the change or losing the bill under a rarely-used process known as ‘double insistence’.

Crossbench peer and former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation Lord Anderson has raised this possibility and described the legislation as a ‘post-truth Bill’ that asks Parliament to declare Rwanda is safe when he believes it is not.

However, that is regarded as a ‘nuclear option’, with Labour indicating it would not try to block the legislation entirely.

A large group of migrants was seen sprinting across a beach before climbing on to a small dinghy as they prepared to head towards the UK in front of UK-funded French police

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame, seen meeting at Downing Street in London on April 9, have agreed a deal for deportation flights to the African country

READ MORE: Rishi Sunak vows Rwanda Bill WILL be passed on Monday as he warns unelected peers that he is ready to make Parliament sit through the night 

Government sources have played down the impact of the wrangling, but many now believe flights cannot begin until mid-June at the earliest.

Downing Street has declined to stand by the timetable previously set out by Mr Sunak for flights to take off in the Spring, merely saying the policy would be implemented ‘as soon as possible’.

Mr Sunak vowed on Friday that this evening would be the final showdown, saying: ‘The very simple thing here is that repeatedly, everyone has tried to block us from getting this Bill through – yet again you saw it this week.

‘You saw Labour peers blocking us again and that’s enormously frustrating – everyone’s patience with this has run thin. Mine certainly has.

‘So our intention now is to get this done on Monday – no more prevarication, no more delay. We will sit there and vote until it’s done.

‘We’re going to get this Bill passed, and then we will work to get flights off so we can build that deterrent, because that is the only way to resolve this issue. If you care about stopping the boats, you’ve got to have a deterrent.’

Ministers have been indicating that the RAF would be deployed to run the flights, instead of using a private airline.

There have been reports the Ministry of Defence is preparing to repurpose at least one RAF Voyager plane for deportations, with claims the government has struggled to find a private airline.

Meanwhile, about 40,000 migrants living in the UK are still ‘pending relocation’ after having their asylum claims ruled inadmissible, officials last week admitted.

Border Force staff are seen dealing with migrants coming ashore in Dover, Kent, this month

The number of migrants crossing this year and arriving at Dover Docks has neared 6,000

And Sir Matthew Rycroft, the head of the Home Office, told MPs last Monday the number of migrants arriving illegally in Britain must fall by about 10,000 for the government’s Rwanda policy to prove value for money.

He said a one-third reduction in small boat crossings from last year’s figure of 29,437 would be needed given the cost of the deportation scheme, which will reach £290million by next year.

Sir Matthew also revealed that the government in Kigali would be handed another £50million almost as soon as the new law aimed at getting flights off the ground was passed by Parliament amid the wrangles between the Commons and the Lords.

More than 40,000 migrants have now attempted the dangerous channel crossing from England to France since Mr Sunak became Prime Minister, figures revealed.

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