Government Could Need UN Nod On Rwanda Flights In New Lords Proposal

The House of Lords is exploring whether Government could need to seek UN advice on whether Rwanda is a safe country in order to deport asylum seekers to the country without exposing them to “unreasonable risk".

Speaking as the upper house began its first day of committee stage on the controversial Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, the Bishop of Southwark told peers that while the government’s treaty with Rwanda “introduces safeguards and checks” to ensure that the country is safe for asylum seekers, these are “not yet in force” and “more is needed” to make those guarantees.

Peers are as a result seeking alterations to the controversial legislation to seek formal assurances the treaty's conditions are met before any asylum seekers can be removed to Rwanda. 

The Rwanda Bill seeks to declare Rwanda a safe country in order to enact proposals to send asylum seekers to the African nation for processing set out in the Illegal Migration Act, which passed into law last year. It lays out measures such as the creation of a monitoring committee and guarantees for protections against modern slavery, and was signed by Home Secretary James Cleverly after a Supreme Court ruling prevented the government from proceeding with their plans. 

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has invested significant political capital in his pledge to end illegal migration, and vowed to do whatever it takes to see deportation flights take off. 

During Monday's Lords session, the Bishop of Southwark spoke in favour of an amendment supported by Labour peer Baroness Chakrabarti and the Archbishop of Canterbury, which if accepted, would “require positive UNHCR advice on the safety of Rwanda to be laid before Parliament before claims for asylum in the UK may be