UK\u00a0immigration minister Robert Jenrick resigned over new government legislation on the Rwanda asylum transfer scheme published Wednesday, claiming that the proposed law \u201cdoes not go far enough.\u201d <\/p>\n
The government\u2019s ill-fated plan to send some asylum seekers awaiting decisions on their claims to the African nation Rwanda has been the subject of extensive legal challenge since it was announced in April 2022. <\/p>\n
Three successive Home Secretaries have attempted to take the policy over the line with efforts continuing despite the\u00a0UK\u00a0Supreme Court declaring the scheme unlawful in judgement handed down in November. <\/p>\n
In the latest blow to the scheme, Jenrick who works within the Home Office, said he would not be able to accompany this latest draft bill\u00a0through the legislative process as he does not believe it goes \u201cfar enough\u201d to ensure the policy\u2019s success. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe stakes for the country are too high for us not to pursue the stronger protections required to end the merry-go-round of legal challenges which risk paralysing the scheme and negating its intended deterrent,\u201d Jenrick said in his resignation letter. <\/p>\n
Jenrick had previously promised publicly to do \u201cwhatever is required\u201d to clamp down on illegal migration to the\u00a0UK, even if that meant withdrawing from the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). <\/p>\n
A group of hardline lawmakers within Rishi Sunak\u2019s Conservative Party, including previous Home Secretary Suella Braverman, have all been lobbying for the\u00a0UK\u00a0to leave the human rights treaty, citing it as a barrier blocking the\u00a0Rwanda policy. <\/p>\n
The legislation unveiled by the government on Wednesday did not take the\u00a0UK out of the treaty, but did have a vital caveat attached to it. On the first page of the bill,\u00a0UK\u00a0Home Secretary James Cleverley said he could not guarantee that the legislation was \u201ccompatible with the Convention rights.\u201d <\/p>\n
The bill also disapplies certain sections of the\u00a0UK\u00a0Human Rights Act, a staple piece of legislation which\u00a0incorporated the rights set out in the\u00a0European Convention on Human Rights\u00a0(ECHR) into domestic\u00a0UK\u00a0law. Another clause stipulates that the bill is sovereign and its validity is unaffected by key international law instruments including the ECHR and the Refugee Convention. <\/p>\n
The legislation was roundly criticized by\u00a0Britain\u2019s opposition\u00a0Labour Party who pointed out\u00a0this is the third draft legislation that the government has presented to parliament. Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper described the government as being in \u201ctotal chaos,\u201d saying it should be focusing instead on \u201cgoing after\u201d criminal gangs smuggling people to the\u00a0UK. <\/p>\n
Legal experts such as Mark Elliot, Professor of Public Law at the University of Cambridge, have also criticized the bill. In a blog post, Elliot described the bill as \u201chypocritical,\u201d saying it \u201cpresupposes\u201d Rwanda heeding its obligations under international law to treat asylum seekers humanely whilst allowing the\u00a0UK\u00a0to \u201cbreach its own obligations\u201d under international law. <\/p>\n
The government was also handed down a warning\u00a0on Wednesday\u00a0from the Rwandan government,\u00a0who threatened to pull out of the arrangement if the\u00a0UK does not adhere to international law, according to\u00a0the British\u00a0national news agency, PA Media. <\/p>\n
Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta emphasized in a statement that \u201cwithout lawful behavior by the\u00a0UK, Rwanda would not be able to continue with the Migration and Economic Development Partnership.\u201d <\/p>\n
The next stage in the bill\u2019s journey will see\u00a0UK\u00a0lawmakers debate its merits in parliament, in what is referred to as the \u201csecond reading.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
UK\u00a0immigration minister Robert Jenrick resigned over new government legislation on the Rwanda asylum transfer scheme published Wednesday, claiming that the proposed law \u201cdoes not go far enough.\u201d The government\u2019s ill-fated plan to send some asylum seekers awaiting decisions on their claims to the African nation Rwanda has been the subject of extensive legal challenge since <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12649,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12648","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}