MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Rwanda bill finally approved in Parliament; ex-minister reveals she preferred the Falklands option

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had announced that deportation flights would start in the coming months

Westminster finally passed on Monday night the controversial plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, following a marathon scuffle between the Lords and the House of Commons.

The bill cleared its final hurdle when the House of Lords — which had repeatedly sent back the legislation — agreed not to make any further changes. Lawmakers in the House of Commons had already rejected two amendments made in the House of Lords last week.

Hours before the vote, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had announced that deportation flights would start in the coming months. “We are ready, plans are in place and these flights will go, come what may,” Sunak said at a press conference. Sunak is facing dire polling numbers with a general election sometime this year and one of his promises has been to end with the “boat people”.

The bill is a response by Sunak's government to a ruling by the UK's Supreme Court, and the EU Human Rights court, that deporting asylum seekers to the East African country would be in violation of international law.

It would oblige the courts to consider Rwanda as a safe third country and give powers to UK lawmakers to ignore parts of international law as well as human rights legislation.

The idea to send migrants to Rwanda was first introduced by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2022, but legal objections have prevented any flights from going ahead.

The Conservatives have repeatedly pledged a reduction in migration numbers, increasingly making it one of their flagship policies. But they are expected to suffer a resounding defeat at the next general election that could take place this year, after 14 years in power.

The plan to deport asylum seekers, who are fleeing conflict, poverty and increasingly extreme weather, is expected to cost the country £540 million to send just the first 300 people to Rwanda. It has been called a cruel “gimmick” by the charity Care4Calais.

The government has said it will stop asylum seekers from wanting to come to the UK, although it's not clear how effective this will be. Some 120,000 people crossed the English Channel since 2018, arriving illegally. Dozens have died.

Nevertheless, Sunak said on Monday that the government had chartered commercial jets and put an airfield on standby for the first flights which could take place in 10 to 12 weeks' time.

UN rights experts have warned that airline companies that are involved in the project could themselves end up being charged with complicity in violating international law.

In related news former Home Secretary, Suella Braverman has revealed she wanted to send asylum seekers to the Falkland Islands - but was thwarted by a lack of enthusiasm from the Foreign Office and the military.

The former Home Secretary said she also proposed using Ascension Island and Saint Helena in the South Atlantic for “offshoring purposes”. Ms Braverman, who was sacked by PM Sunak in November, said she was desperate to get thousands of people away from the UK mainland. She said sending them to British overseas territories could have been a solution.

During her tenure the asylum backlog reached a massive 175,000,with the system costing over £ 4 billion, up from £500million a decade earlier. Ms Braverman claimed that moving people to territories where UK law is in place would prevent the stalemate which has bogged down the Rwanda scheme for the past two years.

Speaking at a right wing Popular conservatives Group, Ms Braverman revealed that support within Whitehall “wasn't forthcoming”.

“So I was very much in favor. It does require massive effort from the military, from the Foreign Office, you know, partnership really, and unfortunately it wasn't really forthcoming.”

When the idea of sending asylum seekers to Ascension Island was mooted last year, a Government source warned: ”The RAF will want nothing to do with it.”