Four days ago, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain urged the House of Lords, the unelected upper chamber of Parliament, not to block his plans to put asylum seekers on one-way flights to Rwanda, describing his contentious migration policy as “the will of the people.”
On Monday night, the Lords did not play ball.
Instead, they voted to delay the crucial treaty with Rwanda that underpins Mr. Sunak’s legislation — underscoring the hostility among some members of the chamber to a policy that has proved divisive ever since it was introduced by Boris Johnson, then the prime minister, in 2022.
In practical terms, the vote has limited impact because the House of Lords — a legislature which is largely made up of former politicians, civil servants and diplomats, as well as 26 bishops — does not have the power to prevent the treaty from coming into force.
But it is a symbolic setback for Mr. Sunak and suggests that the Lords may try to amend the broader legislation, the so-called safety of Rwanda bill, which they are scheduled to start debating next week. It may also strengthen future legal challenges by asylum seekers against their deportation to the African country.
The Conservative government’s Rwanda plan would mean that anyone arriving by small boat or other “irregular means” could not claim asylum in Britain. Instead, those asylum seekers would be detained and then sent to Rwanda. Their asylum cases would be heard in the African country, and they would be resettled there.
By threatening asylum seekers with deportation to Rwanda, Mr. Sunak hopes to deter people from making the dangerous crossing of the English Channel. But so far, despite Britain’s having paid 240 million pounds, about $300 million, to the Rwandan government, nobody has been put on a plane to the African country because of legal challenges.
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