Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill — Clause 1 — Introduction — 18 Mar 2024 at 19:45

“is a crucial life-saving initiative to evacuate people…to safety in Rwanda. It is a significant example of African solidarity and of partnership with the European Union.”

“We are grateful to the Government of Rwanda for hosting these men, women and children until such time, durable solutions can be found.”

“UNHCR will build on the favourable protection environment through continued advocacy and technical support to”

“in the Rwanda treaty have been fully implemented”

“credible evidence to the contrary”,

“a constitutionally extraordinary and deeply harmful piece of legislation. It threatens the universality of human rights and is likely in breach of international law, striking a serious blow to the UK’s commitment to the rule of law.”

“symbolic half-filled flights taking off this spring”

“will be a safe country when, and so long as, the arrangements provided for in the Rwanda Treaty have been fully implemented and are being adhered to in practice.”

“Every decision-maker must conclusively treat the Republic of Rwanda as a safe country”

“unless presented with credible evidence to the contrary”.

“a deficiency in the Bill whereby Parliament is asked to state that Rwanda is and will continue to be safe, and there is no mechanism by which this can be revisited. This is a moderate safeguard”.

“Removals to Rwanda under the Illegal Migration Act 2023”,

“Within 60 days of the day on which this Act is passed, the Secretary of State must lay before Parliament a statement”.

“evidence of human rights violations ‘raises serious questions as to its compliance with [Rwanda’s] international obligations’, since this has occurred despite the country having ratified many international human rights agreements”.

“Medical reviews of 36 people under threat of removal to Rwanda revealed that 26 displayed medical indicators of having been tortured, with 15 having symptoms or a diagnosis of PTSD and 11 having experienced suicidal thoughts while in detention.”

“full compliance with domestic and international law.”

“Parliamentary sovereignty means that Parliament can legislate contrary to the UK’s obligations under international law.”

“English courts will not (unless the statute expressly so provides) be bound to give effect to interpretations of the treaty by an international court, even though the United Kingdom is bound by international law to do so.”

“The sovereign legislator in the United Kingdom is Parliament. If Parliament has plainly laid down the law, it is the duty of the courts to apply it, whether that would involve the Crown in breach of an international treaty or not.”

“There is no magical single solution to dealing with irregular migration.”

“Detailed, evidence-driven, fully costed and fully tested policy initiatives…to achieve…incremental change”.

“Close co-operation with international partners”.

“full compliance with domestic and international law.”

“The treaty sets out the international legal commitments that the UK and Rwandan governments have made consistent with their shared standards associated with asylum and refugee protection.”

“once we agree with Rwanda that all necessary implementation is in place”.-[Official Report, House of Lords, 4 March 2024; Vol. 836, c. 1358.]

“We have been clear that the purpose of this legislation is to stop the boats, and to do that we must create a deterrent that shows that, if you enter the UK illegally, you will not be able to stay.”-[Official Report, House of Lords, 4 March 2024; Vol. 836, c. 1378.]

“the value-for-money judgment depends on the amount of deterrence that the policy will produce.”

“is very hard to tell how much of that is the possibility of being relocated to Rwanda, particularly, as you suggest, before the first flights to Rwanda have taken off.”

“minimise the risk of any unaccompanied child being sent to Rwanda”.-[Official Report, House of Lords, 6 March 2024; Vol. 836, c. 1577.]

“The provisions are controversial because there is broad consensus that age assessment should not rely exclusively, or for some stakeholders, at all, on analyses of the skeleton or the teeth.”

“That will depend on which other countries we have returns agreements with.”

“A person with a positive reasonable grounds decision from the National Referral Mechanism…must not be removed from the United Kingdom on the basis of the Rwanda Treaty until a conclusive grounds decision has been made.

A person with a positive conclusive grounds decision…must not be removed…without a decision-maker considering whether such removal would negatively affect the physical health, mental health or safety of that person”.

“the Government is prioritising irregular migration issues at the expense of tackling human trafficking.”

“While the Treaty might in time provide the basis for such an assessment”-

“if it is rigorously implemented, as things stand the arrangements it provides for are incomplete. A significant number of further legal and practical steps are required under the treaty which will take time”.

“the arrangements put in place by the Treaty need time to bed in to demonstrate that they operate in practice. The Home Office has been unable to offer any clear timeline for implementation, but we”-

“agree with the evidence we received that the Treaty is unlikely to change the position in Rwanda in the short to medium term.”

“intentions and aspirations do not necessarily correspond to reality”.

“could be seen as an outsourcing of the UK’s own obligations under the Refugee Convention to another country.”

“Removing asylum seekers to a state where they face a real risk of serious human rights abuses, or of being sent on to a dangerous third country as a result of an inadequate asylum system, is inconsistent with the UK’s human rights obligations”.

“can experience discrimination and abuse, including from local authorities. There are no specific anti-discrimination laws that protect LGBT+ individuals”.

“the Secretary of State or an immigration officer”

“if Rwanda is a safe country for the person in question”.

“Rwanda is not a safe country for the person in question or for a group of persons to which that person belongs”.

“a decision-maker considering whether there is a real risk that…Rwanda will remove or send the person…to another State in contravention of…its international obligations.”

“callous, immoral and an attack on the basic protections that keep us all safe.”

“unless presented with credible evidence to the contrary”

“the Parliament of the United Kingdom is sovereign”

“the validity of an Act is unaffected by international law”,

“Parliament can be meaningfully sovereign only within a functional legal and constitutional system-and such a system can only exist if its other component elements are permitted to play their proper part.”

“Commentators, journalists, opposition activists, and others speaking out on current affairs and criticizing public policies in Rwanda continued to face abusive prosecutions, enforced disappearances, and have at times died under unexplained circumstances.”

“Requiring the courts to conclude that Rwanda is safe, even though the evidence has been assessed by the UK’s highest court to establish that it is not, is a remarkable thing for a piece of legislation to do.”

Debate in Parliament |