As 534 cross Channel, MPs told: Now pass Rwanda bill
PARLIAMENT was urged to finally pass the Rwanda bill last night after the number of illegal Channel crossings hit a new daily high for 2024.
Latest figures revealed that 534 migrants in 10 boats reached Britain on Sunday, following 214 in five dinghies the day before.
That takes the total number of arrivals so far this year to 6,265 – 28 per cent higher than by this time last year.
Downing Street admitted the figures were ‘unacceptable’ and said they showed the need for the new Safety of Rwanda Bill – which has been held up by Government defeats in the House of Lords – to deter more people from making the crossing.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘It’s an unacceptable number of people who continue to cross the Channel and it demonstrates exactly why we must pass this Bill and get flights off the ground as soon as possible and provide the important deterrent that the Bill will provide.’
The legislation, which declares Rwanda is a safe country for migrants to be sent to after the Supreme Court ruled the scheme unlawful last autumn, returned to the Commons last night for fresh consideration of amendments voted through by the Lords before Easter.
Illegal Migration Minister Michael Tomlinson told MPs: ‘Here we are, back again, debating the same issues and amendments we have already rejected. We’re not quite at the point yet of completing each others’ sentences, but we are almost there.
‘The issue before the House is whether the clearly expressed views of this House, throughout the entire passage of the Bill, should prevail.
‘We cannot accept amendments to provide for loopholes which would perpetuate the current cycle of delays and late legal challenges.
‘We have a moral duty to stop the boats. We must bring an end to the dangerous, unnecessary and illegal methods that have been deployed. We must protect our borders and, most importantly, save lives at sea.’
He added: ‘Our partnership with Rwanda is a key part of our strategy. The message is absolutely clear: if you come to the United Kingdom illegally, you will not be able to stay; you will be detained and swiftly returned to your country, to a safe country or to a safe third country, Rwanda.’
He rejected the need for the Lords’ amendments, including one that would exempt those who helped UK armed forces overseas from being deported, insisting ‘we will not let them down’.
But Shadow Immigration Minister Stephen Kinnock said the Rwanda scheme was ‘doomed to fail’ and that in the two years since it was announced, it had led to hundreds of millions of pounds being handed to the Rwandan government, while the only people flown to the capital Kigali had been three Home Secretaries. ‘The boats have kept coming, the backlog has kept growing and the people-smugglers are still laughing all the way to the bank.
‘Two years of headline-chasing gimmicks, two years of pursuing a policy that is fundamentally unworkable, unaffordable and unlawful. Two years of flogging this dead horse,’ he said.
It is expected that the Lords will table more amendments aimed at watering down the Bill again today, which could be passed if crossbenchers and rebel Tories continue their opposition to the plan.
That will lead to a final round of parliamentary ‘ping pong’ on Wednesday when the Bill returns to the Commons for the amendments to be undone again before they are finally agreed to by the Lords. Ministers then hope the first deportation flight will take off ‘within weeks’.
However, refugee charities,
‘We must protect our borders’
‘Flights could take off in weeks’
including Care4Calais, have vowed to launch legal challenges.
Veteran Tory MP Sir Bill Cash told the Commons: ‘Let’s get this Bill done. Let’s get the House of Lords to calm down a bit.
‘Let us also see what the judgement of the Supreme Court is on the wording – providing it is clear and unambiguous – of this Bill.’
MPs began voting on a series of amendments to the Bill at 8.30pm last night. Due to the Tory majority, the Government was expected to win all of them, undoing the changes inserted by the Lords.
WITH the Rwanda Bill back in the Commons yesterday, MPs received a timely reminder of why it is so urgently needed.
On Sunday, 534 migrants crossed the Channel to claim asylum here – the highest number this year. As winter gives way to spring, the small boats are back in force.
Attempts to crack down on the traffickers have had little effect, so another way must be found to break the business model of this dangerous trade in humanity.
Rwanda can be a vital part of the solution. If asylum seekers know they won’t be allowed to stay in Britain, the incentive to risk their lives traversing one of the world’s busiest seaways disappears.
Equally, by sending them abroad for processing, the taxpayer would no longer be forced to house them here at a cost of some £8million a day.
Unelected Lords sought to scupper the Bill, claiming the Supreme Court had declared Rwanda an unsafe country. This isn’t what the judges said. They ruled only that there was a danger of asylum claims being wrongly assessed and refugees sent back to the countries they had fled.
That problem has now been addressed by the British and Rwandan governments, and yesterday the Commons was set to strike out all the Lords’ wrecking amendments.
With local elections pending, Labour will not oppose the Bill so, despite one more day of blustering in the Lords, it should pass into law by the end of the week.
Rishi Sunak’s challenge now is to get the first flight airborne. With the Left, the migration lobby and human rights lawyers ready to throw every possible obstacle in his way, this will not be easy.
But he has the public on his side. Our detached political elites may not care about mass migration but the voters, who see public services buckling under the weight of numbers coming in, most certainly do.