UK premier's flagship Rwanda plan suffers defeat in House of Lords vote

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak suffered a setback Monday as the House of Lords voted against his new Rwanda bill, which was recently passed in the House of Commons.

The Upper House voted 214 to 171 to not ratify the agreement in a move seen as a "blow" for Sunak amid controversy over the plan.

Last week, a majority of British lawmakers voted to back a controversial bill that would allow the government to send asylum seekers to the East African country.

Despite some threats from "Conservative rebels" to bring the bill down, it passed the third reading in the House of Commons.

Following the vote, Sunak on Thursday called on the House of Lords to pass the bill, saying it is now time to start asylum flights to Rwanda.

In a major setback, however, the House of Lords voted to delay his flagship UK-Rwanda immigration treaty in what is reportedly the first time it has voted against the ratification of a treaty for over a decade.

The cross-party committee said safeguards in the treaty are "incomplete" and must be implemented before it can be endorsed.

The controversial bill aims to address the concerns of the UK Supreme Court, which ruled that the government's original plan to send asylum seekers to the East African country was unlawful.

The bill compels judges to regard Rwanda as a safe country and gives ministers the power to disregard parts of the Human Rights Act.

The Rwanda plan had been one of the most controversial plans of the government's migration policy as it sparked international criticism and mass protests across the UK.

In January last year, Sunak said that tackling small boat crossings by irregular migrants across the English Channel is among five priorities of his government as more than 45,000 migrants arrived in the UK that way in 2022.