PA
Ministers are “absolutely determined” to get a removal flight to Rwanda off before the next election, Home Secretary James Cleverly has said, after the policy was ruled unlawful.
He defended plans for emergency legislation to get Parliament to deem Rwanda a “safe” country despite the Supreme Court’s concerns over risks to asylum seekers.
The Government is working to broker a new legally binding treaty on top of the £140 million deal already struck with Kigali after five top justices ruled against the policy on Wednesday.
Cleverly insisted that MPs could ratify the treaty once it is agreed and pass new laws within days.
But the Government will face opposition to its plans in the House of Lords, where former Supreme Court judge Jonathan Sumption sits.
He told the BBC the “profoundly discreditable” plan to use a law to declare Rwanda as safe is “constitutionally really quite extraordinary”.
He argued it will “effectively overrule a decision on the facts, on the evidence, by the highest court in the land”.
On social media, others have posted reminders that Rwanda has agreed to take just 200 people after originally agreeing to take up to 1,000 migrants from the UK.
Yolande Makolo, a spokeswoman for the Rwandan government, said they are “looking into infrastructure development” that will help them “scale up very quickly” in order to increase the numbers it can receive.
But as the above social media accounts point out, with the numbers currently restricted, it is a wonder the government is causing such a fuss about it.
According to the latest figures, there has been 27,314 small boat crossings this year, which means that even if the Rwanda policy gets off the ground, less than 1 per cent will be able to be deported to East Africa, which is pretty futile if you ask us!
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