The government’s ambitious plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda this spring is facing significant obstacles, with the passage of a crucial bill now in jeopardy.
This plan, which has been in development for nearly two years, has encountered numerous legal challenges along the way, hindering its progress.
The main issue is a bill that wants to say Rwanda is a “safe” place to send people who are seeking asylum. But this bill is facing more problems in the House of Lords. They’ve made changes to it to make sure it follows international rules about refugees and laws.
As a result, the bill must now undergo further scrutiny in the House of Commons, a process is known as parliamentary “ping pong.”
Chancellor Sunak (Credits: Tatsler)
While Chancellor Rishi Sunak has expressed the government’s desire to see flights to Rwanda commence in the spring, recent developments suggest that this timeline may be overly optimistic.
Initial reports indicated that flights would not take off before mid-May, but with the bill facing additional delays, the government may be forced to push back its plans even further.
Rwanda Protesters (Credit: PBS)
The delays in making the bill into law show how hard it is to put such a controversial idea into action. People who don’t agree with it worry if it’s even legal or right to send asylum seekers to a place that might not keep them safe or help them.
As Parliament talks about it more, we still don’t know what will happen to the government’s idea. Whether they’ll send asylum seekers to Rwanda or not is still up in the air.
