The UK Parliament has passed the ‘Safety of Rwanda’ Bill, a major component of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s immigration strategy aimed at curbing channel crossings.

The Bill will allow the deportation of certain asylum seekers to Rwanda, marking a pivotal change in the country’s approach to handling irregular immigration.

After rigorous debates and a back-and-forth between the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the Bill was approved late Monday night. It is poised for royal assent on Tuesday, with the government planning the first deportations for July.

“We are ready, plans are in place and these flights will go, come what may,” Sunak told a Downing Street news conference, hours before parliament is set to approve the contentious proposal.

Sunak says it is essential to deter record numbers of asylum seekers crossing the Channel to England from France in small boats and has made it a key pillar of his Conservative party’s pitch to voters.

“The Safety of Rwanda Bill has passed in Parliament and will become law within days,” Home Secretary James Cleverly announced in a video on social media, calling it a “landmark moment in our plan to stop the boats.”

Under the new law, asylum seekers arriving in the UK via irregular means, such as small boats, may be deported to Kigali, Rwanda. The Home Office has already shortlisted 350 migrants considered least likely to mount successful legal challenges against their deportation.

Prime Minister Sunak emphasised the Bill’s necessity to end what he termed a “legal merry-go-round” hampering previous deportation efforts. “No more prevarication, no more delay. These flights are going to Rwanda,” he stated at a press conference.

However, the Bill has faced staunch opposition from various quarters, including human rights organisations and some members of Parliament. Critics argued that it outsources the UK’s international obligations and risks harm to vulnerable individuals.

Denisa Delić, director of advocacy at International Rescue Committee UK, criticized the bill’s passage: “Sending refugees to Rwanda is an ineffective, unnecessarily cruel, and costly approach,” she said, urging the government to focus on more humane and orderly immigration systems, like scaling up safe routes for resettlement and family reunions.

Legal challenges are expected as lawyers prepare to represent asylum seekers on a case-by-case basis, citing the bill’s provision that allows challenges if there is a “real, imminent and foreseeable risk of serious irreversible harm if removed to Rwanda.”

The National Audit Office has reported that the scheme’s initial phase would cost £1.8 million per deportee for the first 300 individuals. Questions about the financial viability and ethical implications of the plan persist, with Matthew Rycroft, a senior civil servant, admitting the lack of evidence on its deterrent effect.

This legislation has sparked a larger conversation about the UK’s commitment to international law and the moral considerations of its immigration policies.