Rwanda bill puts global refugee rights in danger, says UN and Council of Europe – UK politics latest | Politics
‘New legislation sets perilous precedent globally,’ says UN high commissioner for human rights as Rwanda bill passes
Good morning. Rishi Sunak has finally managed to get parliament to pass his safety of Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill (it will become an Act gets royal assent, within hours or days), but international concern about the new law is not going away. If anything, it may now escalate. This morning the Council of Europe, the custodian of the European convention on human rights, UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, and the UN’s high commissioner for human rights have all issued statements.
Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, said the passing of the bill was a threat to the global legal system protecting refugees. In a statment he said:
The Rwanda bill’s adoption is another representation of an ongoing trend towards externalisation of asylum and migration policy in Europe, which is a matter of concern for the global system of protection of the rights of refugees.
Filippo Grandi, the UN’s high commissioner for refugees, raised similar concerns. In a statement he said:
The new legislation marks a further step away from the UK’s long tradition of providing refuge to those in need, in breach of the Refugee Convention.
Protecting refugees requires all countries – not just those neighbouring crisis zones – to uphold their obligations. This arrangement seeks to shift responsibility for refugee protection, undermining international cooperation and setting a worrying global precedent.
And Volker Türk, the UN’s high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement:
By shifting responsibility for refugees, reducing the UK’s courts’ ability to scrutinise removal decisions, restricting access to legal remedies in the UK and limiting the scope of domestic and international human rights protections for a specific group of people, this new legislation seriously hinders the rule of law in the UK and sets a perilous precedent globally.
All three experts urged the UK government not to use the new powers it has given itself.
But the government is not taking any notice. In a statement issued this morning Sunak said:
The passing of this landmark legislation is not just a step forward but a fundamental change in the global equation on migration.
We introduced the Rwanda bill to deter vulnerable migrants from making perilous crossings and break the business model of the criminal gangs who exploit them. The passing of this legislation will allow us to do that and make it very clear that if you come here illegally, you will not be able to stay.
Our focus is to now get flights off the ground, and I am clear that nothing will stand in our way of doing that and saving lives.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10am: Lord Frost, the former Brexit minister, gives evidence to the Commons business and trade committee about trade deals.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Lunchtime: Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, are on a visit in North Yorkshire.
Lunchtime: Rishi Sunak arrives in Warsaw
2.20pm: Sunak holds a press conference with Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general. Sunak is also meeting Donald Tusk, the Polish PM.
And Sunak is not the only minister travelling today. James Cleverly, the home secretary, is in Italy for talks with his Italian counterpart, Matteo Piantedosi, on illegal immigration. And David Cameron, the foreign secretary, is flying to Uzbekistan for the latest stage of his Central Asian tour.
If you want to contact me, do use the “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a laptop or a desktop. This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting, too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line; privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate); or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.
Key events
A reader asks:
Could you do some research, please? Some posters are saying Labour have said they will repeal the Rwanda Bill as soon as they get in. Which is what I thought. But others are saying they haven’t said that. Did they?
Labour has said it would abandon the Rwanda deportation policy. This has been the party’s position for some time, at least since the party conference, where Keir Starmer said it was the wrong policy and he would reverse it. But Labour has not committed to repealing the bill. The party says it does not need to repeal the bill to get rid of the policy. The bill allows the Home Office to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, but it does not require the Home Office to do that, and the party says repeal is unnecessary.
Repealing legislation also takes time. A new Labour government may have other legislative priorities.
Scottish Greens’ co-leader Patrick Harvie faces vote of no confidence at Holyrood over his lack of support for Cass report
Patrick Harvie, the co-leader of the Scottish Greens and a minister in the Scottish government, could face a confidence vote in Holyrood, PA Media reports. PA says:
The Alba party announced today its Holyrood leader Ash Regan is submitting a motion of no confidence in the minister, which could force a vote he would almost certainly win.
The motion comes over Harvie’s failure to say if he accepts the findings of the Cass review in an interview on Monday.
Asked five times if he accepts the report, the minister refused to say, instead claiming it has been “politicised and weaponised” against trans people.
The review – published earlier this month – highlighted a lack of evidence for some treatments of transgender young people and decried the “toxic” debate around the issue.
The motion would require support from 25 other members in parliament before it could force a vote, but the joint numbers of the SNP and Greens would probably be enough to save Harvie’s job.
Regan – who defected from the SNP to Alba last year – said: “The motion of no confidence speaks for itself. The Scottish Greens wish to side with ideology over clinical evidence. I am hopeful that MSPs will put good governance first, ahead of party lines, and support the motion.”
Prof Sir John Curtice, the leading elections analyst, told Times Radio this morning that, in the light of what Rishi Sunak said at his press conference yesterday, he does not expect a summer election.
Asked if he expected an election in July, Curtice replied:
No, not at all. To be honest, I think we now need to realise that what probably is going on here. It is in the government’s interest to create uncertainty about the election date, because they will want to get their opponents to spend their money now, more than perhaps when the election is more likely to happen in the autumn …
Given that we’re now being told by the prime minister that the flights [to Rwanda] are not going to even start in July, that’s a pretty heavy clue that the prime minister, at the moment at least, is not thinking that this is going to turn things around sufficiently quickly for him to hold an election in the summer.
Curtice also described flights to Rwanda as “the last substantial card that the government seems to have up its chest that it hasn’t already played in its continuing, but so far, unsuccessful attempt to try to narrow Labour’s opinion poll lead, which as we speak, still stands at, 20 points”.
Rishi Sunak spoke to Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, to confirm details of an extra £500m military aid package from Britain, No 10 said. In a read-out of the call, Downing Street said Sunak told Zelenskiy this would “support the highest priority capabilities, including further ammunition, air defence and drones”.
No 10 added:
Ahead of a visit to Poland and Germany, the prime minister reiterated that Ukraine’s security was central to all of Europe’s security. He said the UK would continue to work to galvanise the international community to support Ukraine’s defence.
In his own account of the call Zelenskiy said:
I spoke with @RishiSunak, who informed me that the UK has allocated the largest defence support package for Ukraine to date, worth half a billion pounds.
Storm Shadow and other missiles, hundreds of armored vehicles and watercraft, ammunition—all of this is needed on the battlefield.
I am grateful to the UK and personally to Prime Minister Sunak for such a strong demonstration of support and for the willingness to further develop our defense cooperation, especially with an emphasis on maritime and long-range capabilities.
We discussed the need for an effective model for confiscating frozen Russian assets. We also shared our expectations for the upcoming Peace Summit in Switzerland and European Political Community Summit in the UK.
I spoke with @RishiSunak, who informed me that the UK has allocated the largest defence support package for Ukraine to date, worth half a billion pounds.
Storm Shadow and other missiles, hundreds of armored vehicles and watercraft, ammunition—all of this is needed on the…
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) April 23, 2024
Pippa Crerar has more on the military aid announcement here.
Three men, a woman and a child were killed attempting to cross the Channel in the early hours of this morning, according to a French coastguard statement.
Enver Solomon, the Refugee Council’s chief executive, said this was “another devastating human tragedy” that should have been avoided. He said:
The only sustainable way to reduce dangerous journeys across the world’s busiest shipping lane is for the government to reduce the need for desperate people to take desperate actions.
Instead of hostile, headline-grabbing legislation, we need to see safe routes for those fleeing conflict and persecution, including more options for family reunion, refugee visas, and cooperation with our European neighbours.
‘These tragedies have to stop,’ says Cleverly, as five asylum seekers reportedly killed crossing Channel
Five people have reportedly died in an attempt to cross the Channel near the town of Wimereux, south of Calais, Jamie Grierson reports.
In response to the reports, James Cleverly, the home secretary, said:
These tragedies have to stop. I will not accept a status quo which costs so many lives.
This government is doing everything we can to end this trade, stop the boats and ultimately break the business model of the evil people smuggling gangs, so they no longer put lives at risk.
Jeremy Hunt’s scope for tax cuts hit by higher-than-expected borrowing
Jeremy Hunt’s scope for a substantial pre-election tax giveaway has been hit after the latest set of official figures showed the UK’s public finances in worse shape than thought at last month’s budget, Larry Elliott reports.
‘New legislation sets perilous precedent globally,’ says UN high commissioner for human rights as Rwanda bill passes
Good morning. Rishi Sunak has finally managed to get parliament to pass his safety of Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill (it will become an Act gets royal assent, within hours or days), but international concern about the new law is not going away. If anything, it may now escalate. This morning the Council of Europe, the custodian of the European convention on human rights, UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, and the UN’s high commissioner for human rights have all issued statements.
Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, said the passing of the bill was a threat to the global legal system protecting refugees. In a statment he said:
The Rwanda bill’s adoption is another representation of an ongoing trend towards externalisation of asylum and migration policy in Europe, which is a matter of concern for the global system of protection of the rights of refugees.
Filippo Grandi, the UN’s high commissioner for refugees, raised similar concerns. In a statement he said:
The new legislation marks a further step away from the UK’s long tradition of providing refuge to those in need, in breach of the Refugee Convention.
Protecting refugees requires all countries – not just those neighbouring crisis zones – to uphold their obligations. This arrangement seeks to shift responsibility for refugee protection, undermining international cooperation and setting a worrying global precedent.
And Volker Türk, the UN’s high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement:
By shifting responsibility for refugees, reducing the UK’s courts’ ability to scrutinise removal decisions, restricting access to legal remedies in the UK and limiting the scope of domestic and international human rights protections for a specific group of people, this new legislation seriously hinders the rule of law in the UK and sets a perilous precedent globally.
All three experts urged the UK government not to use the new powers it has given itself.
But the government is not taking any notice. In a statement issued this morning Sunak said:
The passing of this landmark legislation is not just a step forward but a fundamental change in the global equation on migration.
We introduced the Rwanda bill to deter vulnerable migrants from making perilous crossings and break the business model of the criminal gangs who exploit them. The passing of this legislation will allow us to do that and make it very clear that if you come here illegally, you will not be able to stay.
Our focus is to now get flights off the ground, and I am clear that nothing will stand in our way of doing that and saving lives.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10am: Lord Frost, the former Brexit minister, gives evidence to the Commons business and trade committee about trade deals.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Lunchtime: Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, are on a visit in North Yorkshire.
Lunchtime: Rishi Sunak arrives in Warsaw
2.20pm: Sunak holds a press conference with Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general. Sunak is also meeting Donald Tusk, the Polish PM.
And Sunak is not the only minister travelling today. James Cleverly, the home secretary, is in Italy for talks with his Italian counterpart, Matteo Piantedosi, on illegal immigration. And David Cameron, the foreign secretary, is flying to Uzbekistan for the latest stage of his Central Asian tour.
If you want to contact me, do use the “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a laptop or a desktop. This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting, too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line; privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate); or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.
