LONDON – On Tuesday, lawmakers will vote on British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s contentious proposal to relocate asylum seekers to Rwanda, which will be the largest parliamentary test of Sunak’s tenure.
Last month, the UK Supreme Court declared that sending people who arrive in small boats from Rwanda to England’s southern coast would be dangerous and that doing so would be against both international and British law.
As a result, Sunak has negotiated a new treaty with the nation in east Africa and introduced emergency legislation that supersedes both national and international human rights laws.
His party is now sharply divided over the move, with right-wing politicians believing it does not go far enough and moderates fearing Britain is violating its human rights obligations.
One Conservative lawmaker, Simon Clarke, told BBC Radio that “we believe the best solution here is we should pause the legislation today, we should come back with a new bill.”
Right-leaning lawmakers, who have not indicated if they will vote against the administration or abstain, think the bill will preserve the ability for asylum seekers to file an appeal against deportation.
Legal counsel for the government stated that even during a war, access to the courts was a fundamental component of Britain’s heritage of liberty and justice.
Attempts to tackle the issue of increasing migration are being made by governments globally, with some adopting the British model in an attempt to test its viability. A setback to President Emmanuel Macron came last night when French lawmakers rejected their immigration bill.
CRUCIAL VOTE
The first vote on the bill will take place in the British parliament on Tuesday night. To defeat the bill, merely thirty or so Conservative members of parliament would need to vote with opposition parties.
Even if it passes, Sunak will probably encounter resistance in the unelected upper house, the House of Lords, and attempts to toughen it up with amendments at a later time.
As no government has lost a vote at this early point in the parliamentary process since 1986, Sunak would be extremely embarrassed by a defeat, which would also significantly erode his influence within his party.
The conflict bears similarities to the parliamentary battles over Brexit that took place between 2017 and 2019, during which time former Prime Minister Theresa May was repeatedly defeated as a result of widespread.
After Liz Truss was forced out of office last year, Sunak took over as prime minister, and one of his top priorities has been to stop boat arrivals. This year’s arrival of asylum seekers is down about one-third from the previous year, at about 29,000.
However, they continue to be a prominent representation of the government’s inability to manage Britain’s borders, which was a major pledge made by proponents of Brexit.
The government has already given Rwanda 240 million pounds ($301 million), even though no one has been sent there as of yet and the country can only accommodate hundreds of British refugees annually.
During a dramatic day of political meetings in Westminster on Monday, MPs from various Conservative Party factions deliberated on how to cast their votes.
A group of centrist lawmakers in the One Nation faction gave the bill a boost late on Monday by advising its members to support it, but they also issued a warning, saying they would not accept any later amendments that would have made the legislation more stringent.
In a desperate attempt to persuade the right-wing lawmakers to support the bill, Sunak had them over for breakfast on Tuesday.
