Peers inflict 20 defeats on Sunak’s small boats bill
The UK government’s plans to stop small boat crossings have been tackled to the floor in the House of Lords, where peers have inflicted a total of 20 defeats – a possible record – against the Illegal Migration Bill. The Archbishop of Canterbury’s amendment calling for a 10-year strategy to work with other countries to manage the refugee crisis was passed, along with other changes including putting a legal duty on ministers to create safe and legal routes to the UK for refugees and reinstating the right of appeal against age assessments for migrants who claim to be under 18. The bill is now likely to ping-pong back and forth between the Lords and Commons. Its goal is to ensure that everyone who arrives in the UK illegally is detained and removed, either to their home country or a safe third country. But it also likely breaks international law and could deny help to the most vulnerable. The government also currently has no third country to work with – today is the deadline for the government to appeal the Court of Appeal’s ruling that a plan to send migrants to Rwanda is unlawful.
Photograph Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP via Getty Images