New British PM announces end to deportation of migrants to Rwanda

The new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the Labour Party’s Keir Starmer, said this Saturday (6) that he was “not willing to continue with misleading measures”, confirming his intention to abandon the previous government’s plan to expel irregular immigrants to Rwanda.

The project “was dead and buried before it even started (…) I am not willing to continue with misleading measures”, Starmer said during a press conference organized after the first council of ministers of the new British government.

The Labour Party leader had previously expressed his desire to put an end to the Conservatives’ controversial programme, which was officially launched in 2022 but never began to be implemented.

The legislative elections held last Thursday (4) gave a historic victory to the center-left Labor Party, which obtained 33.8% of the votes and took 412 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, well above the 326 needed to obtain an absolute majority.

In late April, the British Parliament approved a bill that would deport asylum seekers who entered the United Kingdom illegally to Rwanda in east-central Africa. The measure was given the green light after months of legislative battle between the House of Lords, an advisory body opposed to the bill, and Conservative MPs, who had a majority in the lower house.

The project was due to start on 24 July, but was pending the election result. The measure was one of Sunak’s main policies to stop illegal immigration.

In November last year, the UK Supreme Court declared the policy illegal, prompting Sunak to sign a new treaty with the East African country and pass new legislation to overturn the previous proposal.

The number of asylum seekers crossing the English Channel has hit record highs this year, with more than 10,000 people arriving in the country so far.

New British Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised on Friday (5) to “rebuild” the country, following the overwhelming victory of his center-left party in the legislative elections, which ended 14 years of conservative governments. “The work for change begins immediately. But make no mistake, we will rebuild the United Kingdom,” he declared in his first speech at the official Downing Street residence.