London:
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak insisted on Thursday that his government's latest immigration plan will work, as the issue threatened to tear his ruling Conservatives apart and jeopardize his position.
Sunak's government unveiled its latest attempt to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda on Wednesday, leading to the resignation of his immigration minister, who said it did not go far enough.
At a hastily called press conference in Downing Street, Sunak sought to calm right-wing Tories, who want him to withdraw Britain from the European Court of Human Rights to prevent courts from blocking deportations.
“This bill blocks every reason that has ever been used to prevent flights to Rwanda from taking off,” he told reporters.
“The only extremely limited exception will be if you can prove by credible and compelling evidence that you specifically face a real and immediate risk of serious and irreversible harm.”
The bill – drawn up after Supreme Court judges ruled last month that the deportation plan was illegal because Rwanda was not a safe country – is expected to be voted on by MPs for the first time next week.
It forces judges to treat Rwanda as a safe country and proposes giving British ministers the power to ignore parts of human rights law.
A defiant Sunak reaffirmed the primacy of parliament on the issue and also said he would not allow a “foreign court” to dictate what Britain could do.
“This bill will work… we will get flights off the ground, we will stop illegal migrants from coming here and we will finally stop the boats,” he added.
“I want to finish the job. Finishing the job means getting this legislation into the law,” he added.
The proposals have raised new concerns among opposition parties and human rights groups, with Rwanda warning it would withdraw from a bilateral treaty only signed on Tuesday if Britain does not respect international law.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)