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United Kingdom, bill on migrant transfers to Rwanda in the Commons on Tuesday but Tories divided
Prominent members of the Conservative Party, both liberal in orientation and the opposite, the most radical, do not hide their discontent with the formulation of the bill by Rishi Sunak’s government to unblock the transfer of asylum seekers to Rwanda , following the rejection by the Constitutional Court last month. And they warn the Prime Minister that the measure – which will arrive in the House of Commons on Tuesday, will not pass in this form. Or if it passes – as the group leaders assure, the no of 30 conservative deputies would be needed to block it – it will not work and will be the subject of appeals. Therefore, “serious concerns” remain, despite everyone’s desire to get the plan off the ground in the name of the fight against immigration, a crucial point of the government program and above all a crucial test call for next year’s elections. Jurists linked to the right of the party have identified problems in the text considered “extremely difficult to resolve”. The measure, according to them, does not do enough to sideline the European Court of Human Rights. While the moderate wing of the party denounces that the bill goes against international law. Representatives of both factions will meet tomorrow to try to compare their positions.
“It’s a bit like Brexit in the sense that the Rwanda program will have the effect of bringing the entire right back together. It is the unifying factor of the right”, commented an important party figure quoted by the Observer. “If in six months we realize that the bill has become law but has not worked, Rishi will be in a catastrophic situation. So you have to make it work. The stakes cannot be higher,” added a former Tory minister. In short, Sunak like Theresa May, stumbled in search of a compromise solution on Brexit. And everyone agrees on this: if the plan sinks, if the plan doesn’t work, Sunak will sink too. There are three problems with the measure that the government is presenting under an urgent procedure, according to Damian Green, president of the liberal Tory group One Nation. The first is that the text declares that Rwanda is a safe country, without however providing any concrete element to prove it. Then, it assigns powers to ministers without their actions being examined. And finally, the removal of the duty of public authorities not to violate human rights is worrying.
Britain signs new deal to send migrants to Rwanda