The British government is pushing ahead with its plans for deportations to Rwanda – and does not want to be stopped by the courts. For Prime Minister Sunak, it is also about his own political survival.
The last 24 hours show quite clearly how great the pressure is on Rishi Sunak. Yesterday the Secretary of State Robert Jenrick resigned. He is responsible for migration and asylum policy. His reasoning: The government’s plans do not go far enough to make deportations to Rwanda possible. In the morning, the right-wing conservative “Daily Mail” headlined: “When will the Tories finally stop fighting each other and fight against Labor?”
Prime Minister Sunak is fighting primarily for political survival. He scheduled a press conference for the morning to explain how the government finally wants to ensure that refugees can be deported to Rwanda.
Rwanda – a safe third country?
A proposed law proposes declaring Rwanda a safe third country. “This law ends the merry-go-round of legal challenges that has bogged down our politics for far too long,” said Sunak.
If Parliament agrees, Rwanda would be defined as a safe third country. The authorities and also the courts would have to recognize this. It would be significantly more difficult for refugees seeking asylum to take legal action against deportation to Rwanda, says Joshua Rozenberg, lawyer, expert and commentator on constitutional law.
Nevertheless, Rozenberg assumes that refugees will sue against the authorities’ decisions – and that there is definitely a chance of success if it can be proven in individual cases that people in Rwanda do not go through a legally flawless asylum procedure and are threatened with persecution.
The government does not want to be stopped by the courts
This apparently also depends on how the judges assess the government’s actions. After all, it could be argued that the government is abolishing the separation of powers here. Sunak put it this way in the press conference: Parliament is the sovereign and should be allowed to make decisions that cannot be stopped by the courts.
There could well be a confrontation with politics if the courts consider that they have been ignored. There could be a conflict over constitutional issues, says Joshua Rozenberg. The Supreme Court’s decision a few weeks ago stated that Rwanda was not a safe third country and that the asylum procedures were not flawless. The judges documented this in detail.
The sticking point is Parliament
It will also remain possible to take legal action before the Human Rights Court in Strasbourg. Politicians on the right-wing fringe of the conservatives are particularly critical of this. There are calls here to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights. Great Britain helped initiate this agreement after the war.
It won’t be that easy for Sunak to get this passed in Parliament. There is resistance from members of his party who believe the proposals do not go far enough, and others have constitutional concerns. If Sunak loses the vote, his time as prime minister is likely to be over.
Christoph Prössl, ARD London, tagesschau, December 7th, 2023 3:21 p.m