London has decided to deport irregular migrants to Rwanda. Criticize the UN

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak got what he wanted. The measure on the deportations of irregular migrants to Rwanda launched by his government has obtained the final green light from Parliament. The turning point came the other night at the end of a marathon of votes, first in the Commons and then in the Lords, which put an end to a 4-month long debate. The Tories expect to see the first flight to Kigali take off by July. But refugee rights associations promise to fight with appeals to the European Court of Human Rights.

The Rwanda plan was launched in 2022 by the then government of Boris Johnson but never became operational due to the illegality aspects certified by the Supreme Court. Prime Minister Sunak, who had arrived in Downing Street in the meantime, took action by rewriting the text. There are two principles that characterize it: the first binds Rwanda not to relocate migrants who have landed in Kigali, the second establishes that the country governed by the “perennial president” Paul Kagame must be considered “safe”.

The law implementing the new plan bounced around for four months from one House of Westminster to another in search of consensus. The Labor opposition’s “no” was strengthened by tensions within the party divided between those who asked for a more severe measure and those who demanded a more reasonable one. The most visible difficulties were recorded in the (unelected) House of Lords which, finally, had to give in to the pressure to carry out the will of the (elected) House of Commons. The final green light (312 votes in favour, 237 votes against) came shortly after midnight. So it ended up in the morning press review together with the news of the 5 people, including a little girl, who drowned in the English Channel while trying to reach the coast of Kent.

Prime Minister Sunak, who had called a press conference on Monday to let it be known that the new Rwanda plan had to pass, “without ifs or buts”, celebrated the approval of the law as “a turning point destined to change the global equation of immigration”. A statement which, according to insiders, betrays the ambition to gain credibility on the international scene as a champion of legislative creativity against irregular immigration. A useful profile also (indeed, above all) to strengthen his crippled leadership in view of the political elections at the end of the year.

Will the Conservatives make it to see the first flight to Kigali leave? The government has already rented charter planes for early summer transfers: around 350 seats. Immigrants on the list, only men over 40, who arrived in the UK after 1 January 2022, will be given limited notice.

The associations are organizing themselves to help them file timely appeals. Among those invited to leave the British Isle there could also be Afghans, who arrived across the Channel to escape the Taliban, unable to prove that they collaborated with the allies stationed in Kabul between 2001 and 2021.

A call to abandon the Rwanda plan came yesterday, not only from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (“A dangerous precedent”), but also from the Council of Europe, the organization to which the European Court for Human Rights belongs. ‘Man (Cedu) who, like two years ago, could be called upon to express his opinion on the migrants’ appeals. According to Commissioner Michael O’Flaherty, Sunak’s law raises “important critical issues” which concern not only the protection of the human rights of asylum seekers but the “rule of law” itself because, this is the explanation, it limits the independence of judges . Sunak was clear: “No court will stop the deportations.” Rigidity that evokes tears and steps backwards from international conventions that London itself contributed to writing. The game, essentially, is still open.

Meanwhile, a new tragedy of desperation occurred in the English Channel: five migrants, including a child, died in a shipwreck while trying to go to the United Kingdom. The shipwreck occurred near the French coast, not far from Wimereux beach (Pas-de-Calais), according to what the police said, confirming an indiscretion spread by the local newspaper la Voix du Nord.