UK: Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss both pledge to pursue further Rwanda-style deals

Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have both pledged to pursue further Rwanda-style deals if they win the Conservative Party leadership race in early September.

In a ten-point plan published in the Sun, Sunak said he will “make our Rwanda partnership work.” He has also said he will pursue additional deals with other countries.

We do not have control of our borders – something needs to change 🇬🇧

Read @RishiSunak's 10 point plan to tackle illegal immigration below ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/AMNCtycE9v

— Ready 4 Rishi (@Ready4Rishi) July 24, 2022

Sunak has said he will take back control of the UK’s borders and reform “our broken asylum laws.”

“People are tired of seeing small boats arrive in this country with the authorities appearing helpless to stop it.”

“I know the Sun on Sunday readers are patriotic, generous people who want to help those who play by the rules and need our assistance.”

“But they are rightly baffled as to why the government can’t stop the boats drifting on to Britain’s beaches hour by hour.”

Last week a group of MPs said that over 14,000 refugees have made the journey across the English Channel this year and that there is no evidence that the government’s Rwanda scheme will result in less Channel crossings.

READ: Attacks on Penny Mordaunt are fresh evidence of Tory Islamophobia

In a video posted on Twitter over the weekend, Sunak said: “Every year thousands and thousands of people come into the UK illegally. Often, we don’t know who they are, where they’re from, and why they’re here. These are not bad people. But it makes a mockery of our system and in the current chaotic free world there is simply no way for a serious country to run itself.”

Every year thousands and thousands of people come into the UK illegally.

Often we don’t know who they are, where they’re from and why they are here.

These are not bad people, but it makes a mockery of our system and it must stop.

Watch below ⬇️ sign up https://t.co/3cXn1rFhca pic.twitter.com/gXjtsGqdXK

— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) July 24, 2022

Sunak has also proposed putting refugees on cruise ships which have been moored at various points around the country.

Whilst Liz Truss has said she will double the amount of Border Force officials working on patrols across the English Channel and deport more migrants.

READ: UK Border Security Agency ‘counter-productive’ in dealing with asylum seekers in small boats

Truss said: “We need to break the cycle of these appalling gangs and stop people taking dangerous journeys across the channel.”

Charities have repeatedly campaigned for the government to offer refugees safe routes so that they do not fall into the hands of people smugglers.

Both leadership contenders have hit out at the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Just before the first flight to Rwanda carrying refugees was set to take off last month, the European Court of Human Rights, an international court set up to rule on applications violating civil and political rights set out in the ECHR, stepped in, and ruled that flights to Rwanda could not take off until after a High Court judicial review.

Britain’s High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court previously ruled against blocking the flights taking refugees from the UK to Rwanda.

Afterwards, the British government announced it was introducing a new bill to allow courts to supersede the ECHR.