Cambridge refugee group calls for Rwanda Bill to be 'thrown out'

A refugee group in Cambridgeshire believes plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda won't stop them from coming to the UK.

It comes as MPs continue to debate the Rwanda Bill after the House of Lords demanded changes to the policy earlier this week.

But a spokesman for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said "the Bill is the right Bill and the quickest way to get flights off the ground".

"I hope it will be thrown out in due course"

Catharine Walston's from the Cambridge Refugee Resettlement Campaign:

"I hope that even if it does pass, it will be thrown out in due course," she said.

"People are going to be in detention limbo for very long periods of time without being able to restart their lives, without being able to get jobs, to contribute to the economy; it makes everything worse."

Bill could go full circle

The legislation seeks to clear the way to send asylum seekers who cross the Channel in small boats on a one-way flight to Kigali.

But it will only receive royal assent and become law once agreement between Parliament's two houses is reached.

The House of Lords had insisted on an amendment to restore the jurisdiction of domestic courts in relation to the safety of Rwanda.

Peers also renewed their demand for the Bill to have "due regard" for international and key domestic laws, including human rights and modern slavery legislation.

Rishi Sunak has made "stopping the boats" a key pledge of his leadership, and sees the Rwanda scheme as a vital deterrent to Channel crossings.

The Prime Minister has previously said he hopes the flights can be begin before the end of spring.

"They're not going to be deterred"

Catharine is calling for a rethink on how asylum seekers are treated if legislation is going to work.

"These are people who are prepared to get on an incredibly dangerous mode of transport in hopes of reaching safety; they're not going to be deterred by this, so if there are no safe options for them, they're going to keep on coming," she added.

"I think the government will succeed in pushing it through, but that pushes us deeper into the mud.

"We're all going to be bogged down with this for a long time and it will have to be changed again because it won't work."

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