United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is trying to pass a bill that would allow the UK to deport refugees, asylum seekers and illegal immigrants to Rwanda.
The inspiration for the idea has come from Australia and our use of third-party countries like Nauru to deal with illegal immigrants.
The UK’s policy is extremely controversial; it was initially launched by Boris Johnson in April 2022, and was then struck down by the Supreme Court.
Listen to the episode of The Briefing now:
The court declared it unlawful over concerns the safety of people seeking asylum could not be guaranteed in Rwanda, particularly the risk of being returned to their country of origin.
Bension Siebert is joined by Jill Rutter, Director of Strategy and Relationships at the UK think tank British Future to explain the bill.
Ms Rutter said UK residents are feeling mixed about the policy.
“For quite a lot of conservative voters, this is a big issue and it’s a very big issue within the parliamentary, conservative party but we have very mixed concerns,” she said.
“We have other concerns about the very, very high levels we’ve seen of legal migration as well. So, asylum seekers are a relatively small number in the general, very big totals we have at the moment of legal migration.
“That was one of the really big slogans in the Brexit referendum. I think they’re looking and thinking, I didn’t vote for Brexit to have 750,000 people a year coming into the UK.”
To hear the full chat, detailing the decision to try and pass the bill, as well as its comparisons to similar bills in Australia, listen to today’s episode of The Briefing.