Rishi Sunak has held a press conference in No 10 Downing Street today, ahead of crunch votes on the Rwanda bill this afternoon and likely this evening.
Urging peers to allow the legislation to complete its passage through parliament, the prime minister warned that his political opponents “have used every trick in the book to block flights and keep the boats coming”.
Sunak said MPs and peers will debate and vote on the bill today until it is passed “no matter how late it goes”.
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“No ifs, no buts, these flights are going to Rwanda”, he added, insisting that the first deportation flights will take place in “10 to 12 weeks”.
He also confirmed that the government has an airfield on standby and it has booked commercial charter planes to take migrants to Rwanda.
“I can confirm that we have put an airfield on standby, booked commercial charter planes for specific slots and we have 500 highly trained individuals ready to escort illegal migrants all the way to Rwanda with 300 more trained in the coming weeks”, he said.
He added: “We are ready. Plans are in place. And these flights will go come what may. No foreign court will stop us from getting flights off”.
Weeks of parliamentary back-and-forth, known as “ping pong”, have seen the House of Lords repeatedly amend the legislation in ways the government refuses to accept.
If passed, the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill would compel judges to regard Rwanda as “safe” and disapply sections of the Human Rights Act and international law.
It would also give ministers the power to ignore emergency injunctions.
Asylum-seekers could still challenge deportation based on their individual circumstances, such as serious mental or physical conditions, or if they are a victim of torture or if they are suicidal.
However, they would not be able to make a generic argument that removal to Rwanda presented a general risk of “refoulement” – where asylum seekers are removed and returned to a country where they face persecution.
Downing Street is understood to be hostile to the idea of making concessions to secure the passage of the bill, leading to a deadlock with the Lords.
Sunak labelled the bill “emergency legislation” when it was first brought forward after the supreme court ruling on the scheme last year. But parliamentary debate has stretched over more than four months, delaying migrant deportation flights from taking off.
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