Lords try to dilute Migrant Bill again

PEERS have again tried to water down plans to send Channel boat migrants to Rwanda.

The House of Lords yesterday voted to allow courts to ground the flights despite warnings this would make the Bill pointless.

They defeated the Government six times, prolonging the Parliamentary process known as “ping-pong” – where legislation is batted between the Lords and the Commons – for at least two days.

But ministers are still hoping for the Bill to pass this week.

Lord Keith Stewart said it would be a “strong deterrent” to thousands of migrants. He told peers: “That deterrent will only work when there is an end to the cycle of spurious legal challenges which seem to do nothing more than frustrate us in having control of who can stay in the United Kingdom.”

The Bill will compel judges to regard the east African country as safe and give ministers the power to ignore emergency injunctions.

The Daily Express understands 150 and 200 asylum seekers have already been identified for the first flights to Rwanda. But lawyers representing migrants are already planning to fight removal orders. One said: “We certainly think that individuals can pursue injunctions …based on mental health and physical health issues or a history of protest.”

“[The Home Office] could argue that Rwanda can deal with trafficking and torture victims but we will argue that they can’t deal with them adequately.

“There is a whole host of ways of arguing for individual claimants that they shouldn’t be removed.”

More than 500 migrants crossed the Channel on Sunday, meaning more than 6,000 have reached the UK so far this year.