This photo provided by the Prefecture Maritime du Nord et de la Manche shows migrants continuing their journey to Britain off northern France coast on April 23, 2024. Five people, including a child, died while trying to cross the English Channel from France to the U.K., French authorities said, just hours after the British government approved a migrant bill to deport some of those who entered the country illegally to Rwanda.
| Photo Credit: AP

Five persons, including a seven-year-old girl, died while attempting to cross the English Channel early on Tuesday morning, according to French authorities. The deaths occurred within hours of the British parliament passing a controversial law that would permit the deportation of those seeking asylum in the U.K. to Rwanda. The new law is primarily aimed at stopping migrants entering the U.K. on small boats crossing the Channel.

The overcrowded boat, carrying 110 people, left Wimereux, 32 km from Calais in France, as per a Reuters report. The boat stopped a few hundred metres from its origin, and several people fell into the water. According to the report, 47 people were brought back to land, and four admitted to the hospital. Another 57 individuals chose to stay on the boat heading to the U.K.

Also Read | Rishi Sunak says first migrant flight from U.K. to Rwanda will leave in 10-12 weeks

Mr. Sunak, who was on a trip to Warsaw on Tuesday, said the incident was “tragic” and said it underscored “why you need a deterrent”. A record number of individuals had arrived in the U.K. on small boats in the first quarter of 2024, according to U.K. government data.

“This Government is doing everything we can to end this trade, stop the boats and ultimately break the business model of the evil people smuggling gangs, so they no longer put lives at risk,” Home Secretary James Cleverly said on X.

The Safety of Rwanda Bill passed late on Monday night, after crossbench and opposition peers in the U.K. House of Lords stopped pressing for their amendments to go through in the final version of the Bill. Earlier in the process, the Upper House of parliament, where the Conservative Party of Mr. Sunak does not have a majority, had wanted to include amendments to the legislation exempting Afghans who had helped the U.K. military from deportation and setting up a committee to monitor the safety of Rwanda as a third country accepting asylum seekers.

Mr. Sunak, who said on Monday that the first flights carrying migrants to Rwanda would leave in 10-12 weeks, hailed the new law on as fundamentally changing the global equation on migration.

Core issue

“Our focus is to now get flights off the ground, and I am clear that nothing will stand in our way of doing that and saving lives,” he said. Migration is a core issue as the U.K. heads towards a general election and the plan to deport asylum seekers by flying them to Rwanda, has been in the works since 2022. However, the policy has been reshaped in response to the many legal challenges it has faced and not a single flight has taken off to date.

The opposition Labour Party’s shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, called the Rwanda policy an “extortionate election gimmick instead of a serious plan”.

Rights groups slam law

Several human rights groups including the UN refugee agency and the Council of Europe criticized the U.K.’s new law.

“The new legislation marks a further step away from the U.K.’s long tradition of providing refuge to those in need, in breach of the Refugee Convention,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said.

The Council of Europe’s human rights body chief, Michael O’Flaherty expressed a number of concerns including that the law “significantly excludes the ability of U.K. courts to fully and independently scrutinise the issues brought before them” by those claiming asylum.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during a press conference at Downing Street on April 22, 2024 in London, England.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on April 22 said he would push through a parliamentary vote on his government’s highly controversial Rwanda deportation legislation, as he promised that flights would begin taking asylum seekers to Rwanda in 10-12 weeks.

A record number — just under 5,000 — people had arrived in the U.K. on boats via the English Channel in the first quarter of this year according to U.K. Government data. Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh were the top five countries of origin for migrants arriving in boats in 2023.

“Parliament will sit there tonight — and vote — no matter how late it goes,” Mr. Sunak said a press conference in Downing Street on Monday. The House of Commons and Lords were scheduled to consider the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) bill on Monday.

The House of Lords — where Mr. Sunak’s Conservative party does not have a majority — had passed amendments last week to exempt Afghan asylum seekers who had helped British operations in Afghanistan and to establish an independent body to review Rwanda’s asylum system.

Also Read | British PM Rishi Sunak unveils 5-step illegal immigration clampdown

Immigration is a highly sensitive issue in the U.K., which is moving towards a general election in the second half of 2024. The initial plan to send illegal migrants to Rwanda was announced by the Boris Johnson Government in 2022. The policy has faced numerous legal challenges, including from the European Court of Human Rights (EHCR) and no flights to Rwanda have taken off to date.

The current version of the Rwanda bill declares that Rwanda is a safe country to send asylum seekers — a clause designed to circumvent a November 2023 U.K. Supreme Court ruling that said the policy (as it existed at the time) was unlawful.

The deportation process would kick off as soon as the vote was over, Mr. Sunak said, as he outlined some of the preparations — from courtrooms to security escorts and flight slots.

ALSO READ | The U.K.-Rwanda asylum plan explained

“The first flight will leave in 10-12 weeks,” the Prime Minister said, implying that the earlier declared spring deadline would not be met. He said multiple flights would take place through the summer (June-August) and beyond.

The Conservatives have focused on the role of people smuggling gangs as part of their messaging around the deportation bill and Mr. Sunak, on Monday, said the gangs were currently targeting vulnerable Vietnamese migrants, whose numbers had “increased tenfold” and who accounted for “almost all” the increase in migrant-carrying small boats arriving across the English Channel.

Mr. Sunak’s party has trailed the opposition Labour Party in polls for some time and stopping the boat crossings has been one of the Prime Minister’s pledges. On Monday, he accused Labour of not having a plan to prevent boat crossings and was “resigned to the idea that you will never fully solve this problem”.