What's next for Rishi Sunak's asylum plan after the bill passes Parliament

However, a lost document seen by Express suggests the government consider sending asylum seekers to Rwanda on commercial flights as early as June.

How did the activists react?

Opposition to the project continued after the government's plan cleared the final parliamentary hurdle. More than 250 civil society organisations, including Detention Action, Care4Calais and Oxfam GB, signed a letter pledging to take a stand against the proposed referral, describing it as “a shameful and cruel law that will endanger the lives of people “.

Steve Smith, CEO of Care4Calais said: “This bill does nothing to make Rwanda a safe country for refugees. All the problems with the Rwandan asylum system, including, for example, its failure to grant refugee status to the largest nationality seeking asylum in the UK, Afghans, remain. Politicians are playing with the future of humanity and it must be stopped.”

Rishi Sunak introduced the Rwanda Security Act after the Supreme Court declared Rwanda a dangerous country. By contradicting this decision, the government will only exacerbate “chaos” in the asylum system, warned Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council.

“Last year the government decided it would stop processing the vast majority of asylum applications,” Solomon said.

“As we predicted at the time, tens of thousands of people are now in the UK indefinitely, excluded from the asylum system, barred from work and unable to settle. »

More than 250 local councilors signed a statement saying they would do all they could to oppose the bill. In a statement organized by the Migrant Champions Network, they said: “We know that plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda have already caused real harm to our residents and communities. Having risked everything to seek safety in the UK, only to be threatened with being sent thousands of miles away, has caused incalculable psychological damage to those at risk.

“As local councilors, we are committed to doing everything we can to resist these plans and support those at risk – whether that is helping at-risk residents access legal advice, establishing links with community groups to protect people at risk of eviction, or otherwise. .”

International organizations also warned the plan was “unnecessarily cruel”.

“Rather than outsourcing its responsibilities under international law, we urge the government to abandon this misguided plan and instead focus on establishing a more humane and orderly immigration system at home. This includes strengthening safe routes, such as resettlement and family reunification, and respecting the right to seek asylum,” said Denisa Delić, advocacy director at the International Rescue Committee UK.

Timeline of government attempts to send asylum seekers to Rwanda

April 14, 2022: Boris Johnson announces plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda to have their applications processed.

June 14, 2022: The first flight to Rwanda was scheduled to take off, but it was canceled while on the runway after the intervention of the European Court of Human Rights.

September 6, 2022: Boris Johnson leaves office and Liz Truss becomes Prime Minister.

October 25, 2022: Liz Truss leaves office, Rishi Sunak becomes Prime Minister.

December 19, 2022: High Court rules government plan legal.

June 29, 2023: The Court of Appeal declares the Rwanda project illegal, concluding that Rwanda is not a safe country.

November 15, 2023: The Supreme Court declares the Rwandan plan illegal.

December 5, 2023: Rishi Sunak's government signs new treaty with Rwanda.

December 6, 2023: The government presents the Rwanda Security Bill before Parliament.

April 22, 2024: Rwanda's security bill passes parliament after peers concede two amendments.

How much does Sunak's Rwanda plan cost?

The taxpayer will foot a bill totaling £1.8 million for each of the first 300 people deported to Rwanda, the National Audit Office found in March.

But even if no planes take off, the government has pledged to pay Kigali £370 million. Sunak says the plan is a deterrent that will “stop the boats”.

Even by the end of 2023, the project had cost £270 million. Yet think tank IPPR has warned that the eventual cost could reach £3.9 billion if each asylum seeker remained in Rwanda for five years – an estimate disputed by the Home Office.

What's next for the Rwanda plan?

Although it took nightly perils to get the bill through Parliament, experts warned the case was not won. Sunak said 150 judges and 25 courtrooms had been made available to deal with disputes “quickly and decisively”, but this was disputed by the judiciary, which said in Law Society Gazette decisions on deployment: “Stay for the independent judiciary. These issues should not be dragged into the political arena.” Putting the bill into practice remains a challenge, said Marley Morris, IPPR associate director for migration, trade and communities.

“From dealing with individual legal issues to ensuring that Rwanda has sufficient housing capacity for arrivals, the Home Office has its work cut out for it,” Morris said.

“At this stage, the prospects for large-scale implementation of the Rwandan plan seem remote. »

Meanwhile, around 50,000 asylum seekers are trapped in a “permanent backlog”, with the government unable to process their applications or withdraw them. At most, 5,000 people a year would be deported to Rwanda, said Solomon of the Refugee Council.

“Inexplicably, the government would rather pay to look after them indefinitely than simply give them a fair hearing on British soil to decide who can settle here,” he said.

“Moreover, the government has never been able to produce any evidence that the Rwandan project will deter refugees from coming to the UK. The Prime Minister reportedly believed that 'deterrence wouldn't work' when he was chancellor.”