Sunak says latest Channel deaths prove Rwanda flights MUST start soon

The deaths of five Channel migrants – including a small girl killed in front of her father – underscored the need to deter people from crossing from France through the threat of deportation to Rwanda, Rishi Sunak said today.

The Prime Minister spoke after the latest tragedy struck the morning after his plan to start the flights to Kigali finally became law.

Peers last night finally caved in and cleared the way for flights to East Africa to begin in the summer.

But there was no immediate effect as more than 70 migrants took advantage of clement weather to attempt the crossing.

The French coastguard said that the dead were three men, a woman and a child, as they undertook a major rescue operation off Wimereux, close to Boulogne-sur-Mer.

Dany Patoux, of the Osmose 62 refugee charity, said that the father of the girl was also aboard the boat and ‘saw his little daughter die before his eyes’.

Wimereux’s mayor blamed Britain for the deaths. Jean-Luc Dubaele said: ‘Why do the English welcome them? Why do they absolutely want to travel to England? These are the questions that need to be asked.’

However, en route to Poland today Mr Sunak told reporters that the deaths underscored the need to act to prevent the boats from setting off in the first place.

‘I think that is just a reminder of why our plan is so important because there’s a certain element of compassion about everything that we’re doing,’ he said.

“We want to prevent people making these very dangerous crossings. If you look at what’s happening, criminal gangs are exploiting vulnerable people. They are packing more and more people into these unseaworthy dinghies.

“We’ve seen an enormous increase in the numbers per boat over the past few years. This is what tragically happens when they push people out to sea and that’s why, for matters of compassion more than anything else, we must actually break this business model and end this unfairness of people coming to our country illegally.’

The Prime Minister spoke after the latest tragedy struck the morning after his plan to fly arrivals to Rwanda finally became law.

Hundreds set off for the UK from France early this morning, taking advantage of calm weather the day after Parliament finally approved a new law to send arrivals to East Africa.

Ministers have said that one of their prime concerns in passing the new law is deterring people smugglers from putting people on the water in unseaworthy boats.

The French coastguard said that the dead were three men, a woman and a child, as they launched a major rescue operation off Wimereux, close to Boulogne-sur-Mer.

A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, by the Border Force following the small boat incident in the Channel.

The Prime Minister has said ‘nothing will stand in our way’ of getting flights off the ground after the Government’s Rwanda deportation plan passed through Parliament

Before the tragedy struck, Mr Sunak this morning said he would let nothing ‘stand in our way’, with hopes flights may start in July.

The first asylum seekers are expected to be rounded up and detained within days after a political tussle over the controversial law finally ended in the early hours of this morning.

The House of Lords had been engaged in an extended tussle over the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill on Monday, sending it back to the Commons five times in a bid to secure changes.

But they relented just after midnight, paving the way for it to become law and allow delayed flights to start in July, in a move Tories hope will boost the party’s hopes of being re-elected later this year.

But the news did not appear to have filtered across the Channel, with more migrants boats filmed leaving the French coast near Dunkirk this morning heading for Britain.

In a statement this morning the PM, who is in Poland, said: ‘The passing of this legislation will allow us to do that and make it very clear that if you come here illegally, you will not be able to stay.

‘Our focus is to now get flights off the ground, and I am clear that nothing will stand in our way of doing that and saving lives.’

The unelected chamber ended the deadlock after MPs rejected a requirement that Rwanda could not be treated as safe until the secretary of state, having consulted an independent monitoring body, made a statement to Parliament to that effect.

The Government said the Lords amendment was ‘almost identical’ to the previous ones overturned by MPs.

In his statement on Tuesday, Rishi Sunak said: ‘The passing of this landmark legislation is not just a step forward but a fundamental change in the global equation on migration.

‘We introduced the Rwanda Bill to deter vulnerable migrants from making perilous crossings and break the business model of the criminal gangs who exploit them.’

Illegal migration minister Michael Tomlinson said the Government was prepared for ‘inevitable’ legal challenges to the Rwanda scheme.

He told Times Radio: ‘It’s inevitable. I’m afraid that there will be challenges.. There are people who don’t like this policy… the Labour lords, as we saw last night and the Labour Party, there are people who are determined to do whatever it takes to try and stop this policy from working.’

Pictured: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak leaving Parliament at 11.30pm last night

MPs rejected a requirement that Rwanda could not be treated as safe until the secretary of state, having consulted an independent monitoring body

In a video posted to social media, Home Secretary James Cleverly said the Bill ‘will become law within days’.

He said: ‘The Act will prevent people from abusing the law by using false human rights claims to block removals.

‘And it makes clear that the UK Parliament is sovereign, giving Government the power to reject interim blocking measures imposed by European courts.

‘I promised to do what was necessary to clear the path for the first flight.

‘That’s what we have done.

‘Now we’re working day in and day out to get flights off the ground.’

Earlier in the upper House, the opposition did not press its demand for the Bill to include an exemption from removal for Afghan nationals who assisted British troops after what critics hailed as a concession.

A Home Office minister said the Government will not send those who are eligible under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) to Rwanda.

The new law aims to clear the way to send asylum seekers who cross the Channel in small boats on a one-way flight to Kigali.

Peers admitted defeat in their desperate efforts to water down the legislation just before midnight, with one describing the moment as a ‘funeral’

Labour’s Des Browne decided not to push his amendment after a concession from the government

The last remaining tweak, tabled by Lord Anderson of Ipswich, had called for an independent monitoring commission to declare the African state safe before Channel migrants could be sent there

The fifth round was the last, with the House of Commons wiping out the amendment

In bizarre scenes earlier the Lords was briefly plunged into darkness thanks to a power cut

Rishi Sunak told a press conference yesterday in Downing Street he was ready to make MPs and peers sit through the night to break the impasse on the crucial legislation

Mr Sunak told peers his patience had run out, with his pledge to ‘stop the boats’ on the line. Pictured: Migrants crossing the Channel last month

The legislation and a treaty with Rwanda are intended to prevent further legal challenges to the stalled 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.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the Rwandan scheme is an ‘extortionately expensive gimmick’ and that if Labour wins the next election, they will introduce an alternative plan.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Ms Cooper said: ‘This is not a serious plan to actually tackle the problem. It’s costing around half a billion pounds for just 300 people to be sent to Rwanda, that’s less than 1 per cent of asylum seekers. It’s not addressing the 99 per cent, it’s not addressing the overall problem.

Planes have already been booked and migrants will soon be detained ahead of deportation, he revealed (pictured: staff boarding a plane which was set to be the first to transport migrants to Rwanda in June 2022)

Mr Sunak insisted he was ‘not going to let a foreign court’ block the deportations, after the European Court of Human Rights (pictured) in Strasbourg grounded the first planned flight two years ago in a late-night ruling

‘That’s why Labour would replace the Rwanda scheme with a new plan to boost our border security, to go after the criminal gangs and their networks right across Europe.

‘Not just on the French coast, so that we prevent boats from reaching the French coast in the first place.

‘We’d also have stronger powers, stronger intelligence agreements, and new fast-track systems in the UK, so that we have a new returns and enforcement unit.

‘Because returns of failed asylum cases have just plummeted over the last Conservative period. We need to actually turn that round and make sure that the system is properly enforced.’

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