Peers block Rwanda deportation scheme for third time

Rishi Sunak met Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, at No 10 Downing Street this month – TOLGA AKMEN/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK

Peers have blocked Rishi Sunak’s flagship Rwanda deportation scheme for a third time, piling pressure on ministers to offer a concession.

The House of Lords backed four amendments to the Safety of Rwanda Bill on Tuesday to send it back to the Commons and further delay efforts by the Prime Minister to begin flights to the east African country this spring.

Ministers will now have to decide whether to offer any concessions, particularly on a demand by peers for Afghans who worked with the UK military or Government overseas to be exempted from removal to Rwanda.

The amendment enacting the Afghan exemption and put forward by Lord Browne, the former Labour defence secretary, secured the biggest majority – of 57 – as peers backed it by 275 votes to 218.

A plane was ready to take asylum seekers to Rwanda in June 2022 from Boscombe Down air base in Wiltshire but was halted by an Appeal Court decision – FINNBARR WEBSTER/GETTY IMAGES

Three former chiefs of the defence staff as well as a former chief of the general staff and a former chief of the naval staff, warned the Prime Minister that failure to exempt the Afghans would be a “dereliction of our moral duty”.

In a letter to The Telegraph, the group of 13 senior military figures warned that “any brave men and women who have fought alongside our Armed Forces or served the UK Government overseas” must be exempt from removal to Rwanda.

The Lords voted as it emerged on Tuesday that AirTanker, an aviation company that provides a fleet of 14 airbuses to the RAF to fuel and transport the military, is being lined up to transport migrants to Rwanda, potentially plugging a major gap in the Government’s plans.

The Bill, and its allied new treaty with Rwanda, aims to answer the criticisms by the Supreme Court that the African state is unsafe for migrants deported from the UK.

Demand for independent monitoring

Measures have been introduced by Rwanda to prevent asylum seekers being sent back to face persecution in their home states, the court’s biggest concern.

However, peers are demanding that Rwanda should not be treated as a safe country until an independent monitoring body has verified protections in the treaty are fully implemented and remain in place.

This was backed by 266 votes to 227, a majority of 39.

The amendment, by Lord Hope, a former head of the Scottish judiciary, has significant support within the Lords, particularly among senior crossbenchers who have been critical to inflicting defeats on the Government.

Two other amendments requiring the Bill to have “due regard” to international and domestic law and to restore the jurisdiction of UK courts garnered small majorities of 25 and 17, respectively.

Migrants picked up from a small boat in the Channel are helped ashore at Dungeness – BEN STANSALL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Lord Stewart, for the Government, warned that the amendments “undermine the fundamental purpose” of the Bill – to deter migrants from crossing the Channel and stop the boats.

“That deterrent will only work when there is an end to the spurious legal challenges that seek to do nothing more than frustrate their removal and prevent us from having control of who can stay in the UK,” he said.

Ministers have so far resisted offering any concessions apart from a minor proposal for an annual report on the impact of the Bill on victims of modern slavery and trafficking.

However, Labour sources warned that the Lords could block the Bill’s progress again on Wednesday if there were no concessions.

MPs are expected to vote down the amendments before the Bill returns to the Lords.

One source said: “If the Government digs in then, given the fact that some of these majorities are holding up, there will be an appetite to bring forward a narrower amendment.”

Stephen Kinnock, the shadow immigration minister, said: “It beggars belief that the Prime Minister could send Afghans who served alongside British troops to Rwanda.

“Today the Lords have voted yet again to try to stop this from happening. Tonight, Luke Pollard [the shadow armed forces minister] and I have written to ministers urging them to do the right thing.”

A No 10 spokeswoman said: “The Prime Minister’s message to parliamentarians across both houses hasn’t changed. We need to act to save lives and that’s what this Bill will help us to do.”

Meanwhile, a senior Tory MP has warned migrants from a cohort of 40,000 stuck “in limbo” may have to be granted amnesty rather than sent to Rwanda.

Tim Loughton, a former minister, and a member of the Commons home affairs committee, said the backlog of 40,000 migrants who had entered the UK illegally since the Illegal Migration Act gained royal assent was too big for them all to be sent to Rwanda.

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