MPs voted to reject the House of Lords’ first attempt to amend the Safety of Rwanda Bill on Monday evening, meaning the legislation has now been sent back to the upper chamber as the process of parliamentary “ping pong” continues.
Among the changes proposed by peers and rejected by a majority in the House of Commons was scrapping the government’s plan to force judges to consider Rwanda as a safe country.
Speaking this morning, Conservative peer Lord Robathan argued that Rwanda is “perfectly safe” if you do not oppose the government.
It came as Lord Robathan, a former MP and minister, responded to the point made by Labour peer Lord Dubbs, who noted that the UK has granted asylum to refugees from Rwanda.
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A Guardian report in January revealed that four Rwandans were granted refugee status in the UK over “well-founded” fears of persecution at the same time as the government was arguing in court and parliament that the east African country was a safe place to send asylum seekers.
Lord Robathan told Sky News: “The people that we’ve let in are opponents of the [Rwandan] government, I don’t think any of the people that we’re sending there are going to be opponents of government so they will be perfectly safe”.
Lord Dubs responded by calling the deportation plan “bizarre”.
He added: “We’re sending people from here to Rwanda — you’re saying it’s a safe country. And yet we’re taking people from Rwanda who are claiming and being given refugee status here, not 30 years ago, but now”.
Lord Robathan replied: “That’s because they are opposing the government and the government in Rwanda is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. However, it is a perfectly safe country to live in if you don’t oppose the government and try and undermine it
“And to get back to my point, one in eight people were murdered in Rwanda only 30 years ago, in living memory. And if you’ve been there, as I have, it is the most appalling atrocity that occurred and now Rwanda is a very safe, prosperous country. And this nonsense about not being safe is ridiculous”.
In the House of Commons yesterday, a total of 10 amendments were put before MPs, but Conservatives voted each of them down.
MPs debated the amendments for around four hours before voting began.
One amendment would have prevent those who had served with or for the British armed forces from being sent to Rwanda if they arrived illegally in the UK.
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Speaking in the debate, shadow immigration minister, Stephen Kinnock said: “[The amendments] each serve to make this shambolic mess of a Bill marginally less absurd, and as I will come to in a second, they would serve only to put in statute what ministers have actually promised from that despatch box”.
Conservative MP and former cabinet minister Sir Robert Buckland rebelled against the government and voted in favour of the second and fourth amendments.
The second amendment aimed to remove the claim that Rwanda is a safe country until the treaty the government signed with the UK last December is fully implemented.
If passed, amendment four would have allowed the presumption Rwanda is safe to be rebutted with credible evidence.
Speaking this morning, however, Buckland warned peers “not to push too aggressively” against the Rwanda Bill.
It comes as The Times reports that Labour peers will continue in their attempts to amend the legislation as “ping pong” continues.
Buckland told Sky News it is the “government’s aim to get this bill through before Easter – so they can get on with the plan”.
“Last night, I took a view that some of the Lords’ amendments were right, I supported them in defiance of my own government which is never an easy thing to do.”
“[Peer would be] best advised not to push the matter too aggressively because this is an elected government that needs to get on with its plan”, he added.
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