Lords Will Focus On Safety Guarantees With Rwanda Amendments

Lords amendments to the government's flagship Rwanda legislation will focus on a treaty to ensure Rwanda is safe is enacted, and will also seek safety assurances from the UN.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is among those who has put his name to a number of proposed amendments to the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, which came back to the House of Lords on Monday.

He has signed on to changes also proposed by Labour peer Baroness Chakrabarti, and Baroness Hale, the former president of the Supreme Court who found Boris Johnson’s prorogation of parliament was unlawful. 

Among their suggested changes are revisions that would mean – if they are accepted – "positive UNHCR advice on the safety of Rwanda" should be "laid before Parliament before claims for asylum in the UK may be processed in Rwanda". 

Other amendments, backed by the same trio, would ensure that “proper regard” is given to any interim injunctions from the European Court of Human Rights, and give domestic courts more powers to prevent individuals from being sent to Rwanda. 

On Monday, the Archbishop told peers that “we can, as a nation, do better than this bill”. 

Speaking during the legislation’s second reading, he said that ministers are “continuing to seek good objectives in the wrong way, leading the nation down a damaging path".

A spokesperson for Lambeth Palace told PoliticsHome that the amendments the Archbishop has supported "ensure that our immigration policy complies with the rule of law. The amendments also create a path for legally accepted asylum cases to return from Rwanda to the UK.

"This is consistent with his conviction that our nation cannot outsource our responsibility to the most vulnerable and abandon those that need our help the most."

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