Labor to consider asylum for Rwandan migrants weeks after taking power

The plans will spark accusations from conservatives that Labor is effectively introducing an amnesty for the 90,000 migrants and neutralizing the deterrent effect on Channel crossings provided by the Rwandan plan.

But a Labor spokesman said the government had created its own amnesty because the 90,000 migrants could neither be returned to safe countries like Vietnam, Bangladesh or India nor processed through the immigration system. asylum and therefore risked being permanently accommodated in the United Kingdom at taxpayers’ expense. .

“Labor will clear the Tories’ chaotic backlog, saving taxpayers more than £2 billion a year and set up a new returns and enforcement unit with 1,000 staff to ensure those who don’t have no right to be here be promptly removed,” the spokesperson said.

The 90,000 migrants who entered the UK illegally have been left ‘in the dark’ since arriving in the UK over the past 15 months because they are not allowed under the Migration Act illegal, to request asylum, but have not yet been returned to Rwanda.

Mr Sunak has yet to implement the Illegal Migration Act which would formally declare their asylum claims inadmissible and give the Home Secretary the power to deport them to a safe third country such as Rwanda or their own country.

However, section 30 of the Act also gives the Home Secretary discretion to cancel deportation and grant migrants “limited leave to enter or limited leave to remain in the United Kingdom” and /or to ignore these powers on the grounds that their expulsion could violate international rules. laws such as the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

It is understood that Labor officials have reviewed the Illegal Migration Act and are said to be “broadly of the view” that they could use Section 30 to begin processing asylum applications without having to pass new legislation.