Rishi Sunak’s revised plan for Rwanda remains in breach of international law, the UN refugee agency has said.
The warning came amid growing outrage from Conservative MPs who intend to vote against the bill. They relied on a poll believed to have been funded by right-wing opponents of Sunak’s leadership. It showed his constituency was one of 111 where voters wanted asylum seekers removed without the right to appeal.
The prime minister is facing a challenge from the Conservatives to pass the Rwanda deportation bill after two deputy chairmen said on Monday night they would back rebel amendments aimed at blocking international human rights laws.
Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith defied Sunak by backing right-wing amendments to the bill to be debated in parliament on Tuesday. But in a new blow to the prime minister, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the Rwanda bill and the recently signed treaty with Kigali are not in line with international refugee law.
In a new assessment of the plan, which the government reviewed after the UK Supreme Court called the policy “unlawful” in November, the UN organisation said it “does not meet the required standards regarding the legality and appropriateness of transferring asylum seekers and is not compatible with international refugee law”. It added:
As of January 2024, UNHCR has not observed changes in the practice of asylum adjudication that would overcome the concerns set out in its 2022 analysis and in the detailed evidence presented to the supreme court. The treaty lays out an important basis for an improved asylum system, but until the necessary legal framework and implementation capacity is established, the conclusion of the treaty in itself does not overcome continued procedural fairness and other protection gaps.
The divisions between Conservatives continued on Tuesday morning. Robert Jenrick, who resigned as immigration minister last month, used an article in the Daily Telegraph to accuse others of trying to “smear” amendments he put forward on Rwanda legislation by “saying I support the far right view”.
The MP, who has put forward a number of amendments including one that would block the most “suspicious claims” by people against their removal, said opponents should “take note” of a poll published in the Telegraph.
The poll, conducted a day after the Conservative leadership rejected the results of another poll showing the Tories heading for electoral defeat and described it as the work of individuals intent on “undermining” the party, showed that 310 of the 361 seats in England and Wales where Labour is expected to win favoured the policies it advocated. The poll was commissioned by the Conservative Britain Alliance, a previously unknown organisation described only as a “Conservative donor group”.
