Rishi Sunak's controversial Rwanda bill returns to Commons

London: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s flagship legislation aimed at flying illegal migrants out to Rwanda, which has been plagued with delays and parliamentary hurdles, returns to the House of Commons on Monday on its journey towards becoming law.

The Safety of Rwanda Bill returns to the Lower House after the House of Lords made amendments and sent it back to the Commons, triggering a democratic process referred to as parliamentary ping-pong between the two chambers.

The peers want to water down the hardline legislation that seeks to deem the East African country safe in law to block legal challenges to migrants being flown out to Rwanda while their asylum claims are assessed.

It returns its voting journey as Parliament resumes after an Easter recess and the fresh wrangles over the bill unfold against the backdrop of small boat crossings by asylum seekers across the English Channel hitting a new daily high for 2024 – at 534 on Sunday. It will be seen as a fresh blow to Sunak, who has made “stopping the boats” a central plank of his leadership as the UK prepares for a general election later this year.

“We remain committed to building on the successes that saw arrivals drop by more than a third last year, including tougher legislation and agreements with international partners, in order to save lives and stop the boats,” said a UK Home Office spokesperson.

Flying out these migrants to Rwanda while their asylum claims are assessed is a key aspect of the Sunak-led government’s immigration strategy and expected to act as a significant deterrent for migrants making treacherous journeys to arrive at UK shores. However, two years after the plan was first announced, there is no clarity on the first flights taking off for the Rwandan capital of Kigali.

Meanwhile, a report in ‘The Times’ on Monday references leaked government documents to claim that the UK plans to replicate the Rwanda migrant deportation scheme with other countries, with an initial list including Armenia, Ivory Coast, Costa Rica and Botswana.

Several South American countries including Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Brazil and Colombia have also been approached but are viewed as less likely to be interested in what the British government describes as a “third-country asylum processing deal”, the newspaper claims.

A list of African countries including Cape Verde, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Angola and Sierra Leone were put on a reserve list that would be approached if other targets failed. Some other African countries like Morocco, Tunisia, Namibia and the Gambia are said to have “explicitly declined” to enter technical discussions.

A UK government spokesperson said Britain is "continuing to work with a range of international partners to tackle global illegal migration challenges".

"Our focus right now is passing the Safety of Rwanda Bill, which builds on the Illegal Migration Act, and putting plans in place to get flights off the ground as soon as possible," the spokesperson said.