Rwanda Bill: Government loses 5 times in House of Lords

The government has suffered five defeats in the House of Lords over legislation to reinstate the Rwandan deportation scheme.

The bill would make Rwanda a safe country to send asylum seekers and is aimed at preventing deportations from being stalled by appeals.

But peers supported changes to make it easier for judges to challenge this.

It also said the treaty underpinning deportation must be “fully implemented” before the plane takes off.

The bill is still expected to pass the House of Lords on Wednesday, when the opposition could face further defeat.

However, the government is likely to overturn these when it returns to the Commons later this month.

The bill forms a key part of the government’s plan to “stop” small vessels from crossing the English Channel, a priority for Rishi Sunak as prime minister. Ministers hope to start flights to Rwanda this spring.

Ministers announced the bill late last year after a plan to send an unspecified number of asylum seekers to the East African country was ruled illegal by the Supreme Court.

In an attempt to revive the plan and prevent legal challenges that would prevent future deportations, Rwanda would be declared a safe country under British law, limiting the courts’ ability to block deportations on human rights grounds. .

The government says this is a necessary step to ensure legal challenges do not derail deportations.

But critics, including some Conservatives, say it puts the public at risk and undermines the court’s independence.

In a series of previous votes, opposition lawmakers supported an amendment that would allow the court to overturn the presumption that Rwanda is safe if it finds “credible evidence to the contrary.”

The amendment was proposed by peer Lord Anderson of Ipswich and supported by a small number of Conservatives, including former Home Secretary Lord Clarke of Nottingham.

Lord Anderson added: “If Rwanda is as safe as the government wants us to declare, then there is no need to fear such scrutiny.”

The countries also approved changes that mean Rwanda can only be considered safe if the independent official overseeing the UK-Rwanda deportation deal says the deal has been “fully implemented”. .

They also supported a Labor amendment that specified the bill must maintain “full compliance with domestic and international law”.

The government says the new treaty with Rwanda, signed in December, addresses the Supreme Court’s objections.

Epsom’s Home Secretary Sharp said the treaty, which replaced a previous agreement, would remove the risk that people sent to Rwanda would be sent back to their home countries and face persecution.

Outlining his reasons for rejecting the amendment, he said the legal basis for challenging deportation should remain “limited” to “prevent a merry-go-round of legal challenges”.

He added: “We cannot allow organized legal challenges to continue to impede and delay removal.”

Any changes made to the bill will now go back to the House of Commons, where the government has a majority and is likely to be overturned.

If the changes are rejected, the bill will go through a process known as “ping-pong” scheduled for later this month, in which MPs and MPs will debate it until they can agree on the final language.

Labor has indicated it will not seek to completely block the bill from becoming law, but one of its leaders, Lord Corker, said ministers would “listen” to objections raised in parliament. said it should.