The majority of legislative members great Britain voted this Wednesday, January 17, in favor of a controversial bill that would allow the Government to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Despite threats from “rebel Tories” to drop the bill, it passed a third reading in the House of Commons.
He “Rwanda Security (Asylum and Immigration) Bill.“, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s flagship asylum policy, was supported by 320 votes and rejected by 276 votes.
The bill, introduced in Parliament last month, aims to address the concerns of the UK Supreme Court, which ruled that the Government’s initial plan to send asylum seekers to the East African country was illegal.
The bill forces judges to deem Rwanda a safe country and gives ministers the authority to ignore parts of the Human Rights Act.
Sunak’s document also sparked criticism within his party, but the majority of “rebels” decided to support it before the vote. Only 11 Conservative MPs reportedly voted against it.
This Tuesday, two vice-presidents of the Conservative Party, Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith, resigned in rebellion against the bill.
The bill must be approved by both the House of Commons and the House of Lords and will then become law after receiving royal assent.
The Rwanda plan has become one of the most controversial pillars of the Government’s migration policy, sparking international criticism and massive protests across the country.
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