Why has UK’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda been delayed again?

House of Lords deals blow to ruling Conservatives’ ‘stop the boats’ policy.

The UK’s House of Lords delivered another blow to the government’s plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda on Wednesday when it voted to reinsert amendments to a bill which had already been rejected by the House of Commons.

With the support of opposition Labour and cross-bench peers, as well as some rebel Conservatives, including Lord Ken Clarke, a former Conservative chancellor, the UK’s upper house proposed 10 changes to the Safety of Rwanda Bill earlier this month, all of which were rejected by legislators in the Commons on Monday.

However, Wednesday’s decision by the Lords to reinstate at least some of its original changes means that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces a race against time to make good on his commitment to start the process of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda before June.

The government says this scheme is designed to deter “migrants” from attempting to cross the English Channel – one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes – to reach Britain. Last year, 29,437 people, including many from Afghanistan and Syria, made the Channel crossing in small boats. Most were hoping to claim asylum in the United Kingdom.

Sunak, who became prime minister in October 2022, has made it the mission of his government to put a stop to these arrivals by following through on a Conservative pledge to “stop the boats”. This involves deporting some asylum seekers from the UK to the East African country where their asylum applications would then be processed.