Following the unprecedented and extraordinary Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s demission by his own Conservative Party, one of his most essential agreements to transfer asylum seekers who crossed the British Channel to the UK to Rwanda is presently in “disarray” but also in a “state of confusion”
The current UK-Rwanda deportation project amid a protracted legal battle is now in “disorder…and chaos” as Boris Johnson finally bowed down and resigned. Furthermore, credible news gathered also suggested that “some of the contestants vying for the position of new Prime Minister are not in favour of the UK-Rwanda deal…and that the agreement may be annulled altogether” as the most respected candidates are declining to support it.
In May, 2,871 migrants were apprehended crossing the Channel by small boat compared with 1,627 in May 2021, a 75% increase. Similarly, during the first three months of 2022, 4,540 people were detected arriving by small boats compared with 7,432 during the last half of April, May and June after the MoD took over.
In April, Home Secretary Priti Patel signed a “world-first” agreement to send migrants deemed to have arrived in the UK illegally to Rwanda.
Downing Street confirmed the Home Office agreement with the East African nation and suggested attempts to once again get the first deportation flight off the ground could be made before a legal challenge against the policy is due to be heard on July 19. The first deportation flight – scheduled to take off in June – was grounded amid legal challenges.
This policy is driven by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was forced to tender his dimension as Conservative Party leader last week.
The Home Office agreement with the central African country remains in place. The first deportation flight could be made before a legal challenge is heard on July 19, despite Mr Johnson’s imminent demission and departure from office.
The prospect of a new prime minister should represent an opportunity to abandon what is undoubtedly one of the most shameful policies of Mr Johnson’s tenure.
This is a policy that has been dismissed even by the government’s advisers. Home Office Permanent Secretary Matthew Rycroft has said he does not believe there is any evidence to suggest the scheme will be enough of a deterrent to represent value for money.
The next prime minister must have the courage to ditch this inhumane legacy of their predecessor. They would do well to bear in mind that it is likely to be far less popular with the electorate as a whole than it may be with some of the Tory Party members who installed them in Downing Street.
Even the Royal Navy is threatening to “walk away” from Boris Johnson and Priti Patel’s plan
to stem the number of boats carrying asylum seekers across the Channel as official data shows how spectacularly the policy has backfired. Defence chiefs are said to be fed up with trying to enact the prime minister and home secretary’s rapidly imploding plan of using the military to control small boats in the Channel. Ministry of Defence data shows crossings have nearly doubled since the army was given “primacy” over the issue from mid-April compared with the first three months of this year.
But now, after Boris Johnson’s demission, Conservative MPs have voted in the first round of their leadership contest, eliminating Jeremy Hunt and Nadhim Zahawi as the two least favoured candidates.
Former chancellor Rishi Sunak topped the ballot with the backing of 88 MPs, while Portsmouth MP Penny Mordaunt beat Liz Truss for second place with 67 votes to Truss’s 50. MPs are set to vote against and will continue to eliminate more candidates until two just two remain
To continue, we will take a look at leadership candidates’ points of view about the Rwanda refugee plan.
Rishi Sunak backed Boris Johnson’s Rwanda migrant deportation scheme,
saying it was vital to stop criminal gangs from putting people in harm’s way by crossing the Channel. The former chancellor, 42, spoke in support of the scheme ‘as the child and grandchild of immigrants’ to the UK. “‘This country has a proud history of welcoming people, but it’s also vital that we’re in control of who’s coming here”, he said.
All the remaining six candidates in the Tory leadership race have backed the £120million scheme to send those deemed to be here illegally to East Africa. Mr Sunak told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I think it’s critical that we have control of our borders, and I say that as the child and grandchild of immigrants.
Ms Mordaunt, a trade minister and MP for Portsmouth North, came second behind former chancellor Rishi Sunak in the first round of votes on Wednesday evening. She received 67 votes – ten more than Liz Truss in third place and 21 behind Mr Sunak. But it followed a snap poll of Conservative party members that suggested Ms Mordaunt would beat Mr Sunak if the final vote by Tory party members were a choice between the two.
Mordaunt followed her win by pledging to tackle people traffickers who smuggle migrants in perilous, sometimes fatal, journeys over the Channel and the Mediterranean.
“We must crack down on the evil and barbaric practice that exploits vulnerable people to arrive here illegally,” she told The Sun. Mordaunt continued, “I’ve spent a long time in the Mediterranean mapping migrant routes in the Med and North Libya – we should be doing more to work on what would be in France’s interest regarding their Southern border. The rules governing this are completely unfit for the world we live in today – we need a new diplomatic narrative.”
Ms Mordaunt, who would retain the Rwanda migrant plan if she got the keys to No10
would cut off fuel supplies and boats from smugglers in France and offer Paris help in protecting their borders from illegal migrants. In general, it seems Penny Mordaunt has adopted a more implicit policy towards Rwanda refugees.
Another Tory leadership candidate, Liz Truss, says she “completely agrees” with the controversial Rwanda deportation policy.
“I completely agree with the Rwanda policy,” I worked very closely with Priti Patel on it, and we need to have further reforms in the United Kingdom to make sure that we can stop illegal immigration,” Ms Truss said.
In conclusion, a controversial UK government policy to send asylum seekers to Rwanda has been paused until a new Tory leader is chosen.
Following a High Court ruling to delay legal challenges to the scheme until September. After Boris Johnson’s demission last week, almost all Conservative candidates bidding for the top Tory job said they supported the plan. Ex-Health Minister Jeremy Hunt suggested new deportation locations could be explored.
