Rwanda bill: Rishi Sunak ‘crystal clear’ he will ignore international law to ensure asylum seekers are deported

Published

1 year ago

January 19, 2024

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Rishi Sunak has insisted he will “ignore” international law in order to ensure asylum seekers get deported to Rwanda.

The prime minister managed to get his controversial policy through its latest parliamentary stage last night after days of rebellions from Conservative MPs, who want to see the bill toughened up.

But despite two rebel sources telling Sky News’s political editor Beth Rigby that ‘no confidence’ letters had now been submitted over his leadership, he insisted his party was “completely united in wanting to stop the boats”.

Mr Sunak also claimed his plan to stop small boat crossings in the Channel was “working” – despite government figures showing a further 358 asylum seekers arrived in the UK on Wednesday.

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Opposition parties called out Mr Sunak for focusing on the “unworkable and expensive policy” of Rwanda instead of tackling crises in the NHS and the economy.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said the events of recent days “confirms how desperately out of touch and out of ideas this Conservative government is”, while the SNP’s Alison Thewliss said Mr Sunak’s priorities were “all wrong and the public are fed up”.

Government legal advice states that failing to comply with so-called section 39 orders from European courts – used previously to stop deportation flights taking off before additional court hearings – would be a breach of international law.

Rule 39 orders are issued by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on an exceptional basis, where there is a “real risk of serious and irreversible harm”.

Asked at today’s press conference whether he would be willing to ignore such rulings, Mr Sunak said: “I’ve been crystal clear repeatedly that I won’t let a foreign court stop us from getting flights off and getting this deterrent up and running.

“The bill specifically contains a power that makes clear that ministers are the ones that make these decisions. Parliament has supported that.

“[The bill also] makes it perfectly clear that the domestic courts should respect that decision.”

He added: “I would not have put that clause in the bill if I was not prepared to use it. So, look, if you’re asking me are there circumstances in which I will ignore rule 39, then the answer is clearly yes.”

Sunak ignores party drama to focus ire on the Lords

Amanda Akass

Political correspondent

@amandaakass

The prime minister began his press conference by attempting to dismiss all the drama and debate of the past few days – the questions about his leadership, the doubts the policy would work – with the optimistic claim “the Conservative Party has come together”.

That’s highly debatable on a morning in which rebels are claiming to have submitted ‘several’ letters of no confidence.

Rather than dwelling on the internal divisions within his party, however, he optimistically wanted to project himself as a man intent on tackling the “biggest challenges that face the country”, that he’s getting on with the job, and that his plan is working.

But the key focus was to lecture the House of Lords on the importance of passing the legislation as soon as possible – urging them to “get on board and do the right thing” and “move as quickly as we have” – stressing the “appointed” nature of members of the Upper House compared to the “elected” Commons.

He’s singling out the “opposition” in the Lords – and while it’s true that Labour categorically oppose the plan, it’s worth remembering the last time the scheme was debated there, the most stinging criticism came from the archbishops and law lords, who are non-affiliated.

While you’d expect a Conservative prime minister to focus his attacks on Labour for “sniping from the side-lines” of his policy, taking on the Lords more broadly is an odd strategy.

Some of the language used – suggesting they might “try and frustrate the will of the people” – was reminiscent of the Brexiteer condemnation of Supreme Court judges as “enemies of the people”.

Mr Sunak has found it hard enough to keep his MPs on board. He certainly doesn’t have the same power over the Lords – but he’s come out fighting.

It seems he is pre-emptively seeking to blame the Lords for any further delay to the plan too.

Repeatedly asked by journalists whether he’s sticking to his pledge to see deportation flights taking off by the spring, he was unable to repeat that previous commitment – indeed, he wasn’t even able to say planes would take off before the next general election, which seems likely to be in the Autumn.

The prime minister insisted at the end of last year that the first flights to Rwanda would take off “in the spring”.

Asked if this was still the case, Mr Sunak said: “I want to see this happen as soon as practically possible. Of course I do.”

But he threw the deadline to the House of Lords – where the bill will face its next round of scrutiny and is expected to be bitterly opposed by numerous peers.

He said: “The question is will the House of Lords understand the country’s frustration, see the will of the elected House [the Commons] and move as quickly as we have to support this legislation so we can get it on the statute books and then get flights up and running?”

Barrister and cross-bench peer Lord Carlisle described the prime minister’s press conference as “banal”, “vacuous” and “extremely repetitive”, telling Sky News: “It is plain… [Mr Sunak] doesn’t understand anything about the way the House of Lords operates. We are not there to thwart the government.”

He described the government’s course of action as a “step towards totalitarianism, saying: “When a government decides to push aside its senior courts – and here we’re talking about something that arose in the UK Supreme Court – that is certainly a first step towards a very undesirable form of government.”

Read more on Rwanda bill:
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The prime minister also said he was “proud of the progress” the government had made on tackling small boat crossings, and claimed his plan was “working” – albeit admitting there was “not one single silver bullet that will fix it”.

But shortly after the press conference, the latest statistics showed 358 people in eight boats had made the dangerous journey to the UK shore on Tuesday alone, bringing the total for 2024 so far to 621.

The controversial Rwanda bill is designed to send asylum seekers arriving in the UK on small boats to the African nation, and act as a deterrent to others from making Channel crossings.

Around 60 Tory MPs defied the government by voting for amendments to toughen up the law – including proposals to limit appeals and stop interventions against deportation flights from international courts.

But none of the changes were approved in the Commons, and when it came to a vote on the bill in its entirety, only 11 Conservatives – including former home secretary Suella Braverman and ex-immigration minister Robert Jenrick – chose to rebel.

In fact, several of the prominent figures who publicly argued the legislation needed to be tougher fell into line when the crunch vote came late last night – with two MPs who resigned their party posts in order to back rebel amendments walking through the yes lobby.

However, Ms Braverman, who was fired as home secretary in Mr Sunak’s last reshuffle, posted on X that the Rwanda bill would “not stop the boats” in its current form and “leaves us exposed to litigation and the Strasbourg court”.

She added: “I engaged with the government to fix it but no changes were made. I could not vote for yet another law destined to fail.”

Despite overcoming disquiet on his backbenches, Mr Sunak is not out of the woods yet, with Tory rebel sources telling Sky News’s political editor Beth Rigby that “several” MPs had submitted no confidence letters in the prime minister as a result of the internal row.

Asked by Sky News what his message was to those Tories who had voted down his bill in parliament last night, Mr Sunak said: “The plan is working right across the board. You can see that progress is being made. And our job is to stick to that plan, deliver for the country.”

Politics

Stacks Asia expands Bitcoin initiatives with Abu Dhabi partnership

Published

5 hours ago

April 28, 2025

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Stacks Asia expands Bitcoin initiatives with Abu Dhabi partnership

The Stacks Asia DLT Foundation has become the first Bitcoin-based organization to establish an official presence in the Middle East, aiming to promote institutional Bitcoin adoption through expanded educational initiatives.

Stacks Asia has partnered with the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) — one of the world’s fastest-growing financial centers — in a move that could boost the adoption of its Bitcoin (BTC) layer-2 (L2) solution in the Middle East and Asia.

The new partnership will play a “pivotal role” in shaping the future of Bitcoin’s “programmability and adoption” in these regions through educational programs and support for Bitcoin builders, according to an April 28 announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

Through the collaboration, Stacks and the ADGM aim to make it easier for institutions and investors to participate in the growing Bitcoin economy and help set “new standards for regulatory clarity and technical growth” for the rising global Bitcoin capital, according to Kyle Ellicott, executive director at Stacks Asia DLT Foundation.

“Stacks and ADGM are a powerful combination for accelerating Bitcoin adoption across the Middle East and Asia,” Ellicott told Cointelegraph, adding:

“ADGM has established itself as a world-class global financial hub at the heart of the United Arab Emirates, known as the ‘Capitol of Capital,’ where capital and innovation are brought together to shape the future financial landscape.”

“We’ll be working to enable the launch of educational programs, regional developer communities, and create opportunities for the real-world adoption of Bitcoin-powered applications,” he said.

Starting in May, the foundation will host a series of live and virtual events to “empower institutions” with the knowledge to integrate Bitcoin into their operations and learn about the “opportunity of productive Bitcoin capital,” Ellicott added.

Stacks Foundation pushing for a “progressive” regulatory environment worldwide

As the leading Bitcoin scalability solution, Stacks is also pushing for progressive global regulations that will cement Bitcoin’s role in the future of the financial landscape.

“We’re not just focused locally — our team is engaged in global conversations, advocating for frameworks that balance decentralization, security, innovation, and compliance surrounding the unlocking of Bitcoin capital,” Ellicott said.

A key part of the strategy involves knowledge sharing with local regulatory bodies to build understanding among government officials about Bitcoin’s characteristics and potential economic impact.

The foundation is also developing the Bitcoin Capital Activation Framework, described as a comprehensive policy blueprint to help regulators enable Bitcoin utility in their jurisdictions.

The Stacks Foundation will also launch the Bitcoin Policy Bridge in May, a working group uniting regulators from all key jurisdictions across the Middle East and Asia.

In February, ADGM signed a memorandum of understanding with the Solana Foundation to advance the development of distributed ledger technology.

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Politics

Crypto projects prepare to battle for privacy in Switzerland

Published

6 hours ago

April 28, 2025

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Crypto projects prepare to battle for privacy in Switzerland

Switzerland has long been seen as a beacon of privacy where companies, organizations and wealthy people put down roots in an effort to avoid the prying eyes of the rest of the world. Joining this cohort are many Web3 projects, which also appreciate the Swiss government’s generally positive stance toward blockchain and digital assets.

The country’s reputation as a privacy haven has resulted in Switzerland becoming a hub for privacy projects establishing their foundations or development entities there, including Nym, Session and Hopr — joining traditional privacy software companies such as Proton and Threema.

Now, a proposed change to a Swiss surveillance ordinance is worrying these same projects, as it would spell a marked increase in the government’s user monitoring requirements. But the decentralized nature of crypto may offer a solution for those wishing to preserve their privacy in a climate of increasing surveillance.

Switzerland is a privacy haven — or maybe not

Switzerland has long been considered by many to have some of the world’s strongest privacy protections. As Proton, the company behind the encrypted Proton Mail email service, argued in a 2014 blog post titled “Why Switzerland?”, the Central European country offers several advantages: Companies are outside of the jurisdiction of the US and EU, the country is politically neutral, there are strong constitutional privacy protections, and there is established infrastructure.

Kee Jeffries, technical co-founder of decentralized private messaging app Session, recently told Cointelegraph’s The Agenda podcast that it was important to establish the foundation “in a country which has a long history of preserving people’s personal privacy and freedom of speech.”

However, all governments must ultimately balance citizen privacy and national security concerns. In Switzerland, surveillance is governed by the Ordinance on the Surveillance of Correspondence by Post and Telecommunications (OSCPT).

In January, the Swiss Federal Council proposed a revision to the OSCPT that would increase user monitoring requirements for telecommunications service providers and widen the definition of who meets these requirements to include services such as VPNs, social networks and messaging apps.

In short, as they are currently written, the changes would require service providers that serve at least 5,000 users to identify all users and willfully decrypt all communications that are not end-to-end encrypted.

Privacy projects fight back against surveillance

The move has been met with widespread backlash from the privacy community. Proton CEO Andy Yen has threatened to fight the government in court and potentially pull the company out of the country. Decentralized VPN provider Nym issued a public call to action for Swiss citizens to contact their representatives and oppose the action.

In a statement, Nym’s chief operating officer, Alexis Roussel, said the ordinance by the Federal Council “is destroying an entire sector,” adding:

“This ordinance directly endangers the people who use these services.”

Sebastian Bürgel, vice president of technology at Gnosis and founder of decentralized mixnet Hopr, echoed the concerns of Yen and Roussel, telling Cointelegraph the move would likely backfire.

“If the intent is to limit the privacy and anonymity that services such as Proton Mail, Proton VPN and Threema are providing, that will not change much because those entities will potentially leave Switzerland if that were to happen,” he said. “But again, the consequences will be borne by everyone out there and everyone who’s actually in Switzerland.”

Meanwhile, Ronald Kogens, a legal partner at Swiss law firm MME who focuses on Web3 and fintech, told Cointelegraph that it’s unclear whether the Swiss Federal Council even has the authority to implement such changes.

“In an ordinance, you cannot include any heavy rights or obligations which have a strong impact on individuals in Switzerland,” he shared, saying that the Federal Council is essentially an executive body and that laws must pass through parliament.

“One question you could ask is, does the Federal Council have the power, based on the laws where it stated that they can enact an ordinance, the power to do this, what they’re doing now?”

Are Swiss crypto projects at risk?

The move by the Swiss Federal Council is damaging Switzerland’s privacy reputation, but decentralized technologies like blockchain networks may offer a lifeline. According to Kogens, truly decentralized projects should be exempt from the new surveillance requirements.

“In my opinion, most Web3 activities are not affected because […] the pure offering of software without running any infrastructure for the whole messaging or communication system is not covered by this,” he told Cointelegraph. “You have to have specific servers or clients that you operate that are an essential part of the communication or messaging service.”

Either way, the more decentralized a project is, the less any government can influence its operations. Take, for example, Tornado Cash, which has continued chugging along for years despite multiple developers being arrested and the US sanctioning its smart contracts at one point.

Nym CEO Harry Halpin told Cointelegraph in March that “in theory, we should be able to get run over with a car, and the network would keep operating.”

“Hopr, as an example of Web3 infrastructure, does not operate infrastructure, right?” said Bürgel. “Hopr Association is involved in software development and research and development, but we are not an operator of a network.”

The fact that the Hopr network is fully decentralized and anonymous means the Hopr Association could not actually give any information about its users to Switzerland, even if it were legally compelled.

“Individual node runners which are participating in it, or other third parties, cannot tell who is using the Hopr network to access any kind of web service. That is the explicit goal of what we are undertaking.”

The future of privacy in Switzerland

The Swiss Federal Council’s proposed changes to the OSCPT are still in the consultation phase, with the public encouraged to offer feedback on the proposal through May 6.

Kogens told Cointelegraph that the council will review the feedback, create a final report, and decide whether to adjust the proposal. “That happens quite a lot,” he said, “because in the end, it’s not in the interest of Switzerland to do something which harms the industry, as long as they still can fulfill their goal, which they have with this surveillance act.”

But even if the changes go through as written, there could be some positive knock-on effects for the crypto space. “It may be that the silver lining is that it will drive users to decentralized and privacy-facilitating solutions instead,” said Bürgel.

“It is clear to everyone that more surveillance is bad,” he added. “Every single individual understands that.”

“Taming the surveillance machinery is a goal of Web3. It’s not just about magic internet money. And yeah, I think we need more people working towards that.”

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Caitlin Long slams US Fed over stablecoin policy favoring big banks

Published

7 hours ago

April 28, 2025

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Caitlin Long slams US Fed over stablecoin policy favoring big banks

Caitlin Long, founder and CEO of Custodia Bank, has criticized the US Federal Reserve for quietly maintaining a key anti-crypto policy that favors big-bank-issued stablecoins, despite relaxing crypto partnership rules for banks.

In an April 27 thread on X, Long explained that while the Fed recently rescinded four prior crypto guidelines, it left intact a Jan. 27, 2023, statement issued in coordination with the Biden administration.

The guidance, according to Long, blocks banks from engaging directly with crypto assets and prohibits them from issuing stablecoins on permissionless blockchains.

“THE FED HAS MAINTAINED A REGULATORY PREFERENCE FOR PERMISSIONED STABLECOINS (ie, big-bank versions),” Long stated.

She warned that this move gives traditional financial institutions a “head start” in launching private stablecoins while the broader market waits for stablecoin legislation to pass through Congress.

Long urges Congress to pass stablecoin bill

Long noted that once a federal stablecoin bill becomes law, it could override the Fed’s stance. “Congress should hurry up,” she urged.

Beyond stablecoins, Long pointed out how the Fed’s policy hampers banks from participating in crypto markets as principals, preventing them from market-making in assets like Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) or Solana (SOL).

She also noted operational challenges for banks looking to offer crypto custody services, particularly around covering gas fees for onchain transactions — a standard practice for crypto custodians but restricted under current Fed rules.

Summing up her concerns, Long argued that the Fed’s decision keeps “sand in the wheels” of banks entering crypto custody, while simultaneously advancing permissioned stablecoins backed by major financial institutions.

“The Fed definitely won on PR spin–its press release listed a long list of guidance it rescindedbut omitted ANY mention of the guidance it kept. That duped *a lot* of smart people, understandably,” she wrote.

Senator Lummis calls Fed’s move as “lip service”

Senator Cynthia Lummis, a vocal supporter of digital assets, also condemned the Fed’s move as mere “lip service,” signaling potential legislative pushback in the near future.

Lummis mentioned the Fed’s policy statement in Section 9(13), which hasn’t been withdrawn, stating that Bitcoin and digital assets are considered “unsafe and unsound.”

However, other crypto executives praised the Fed’s announcement as a positive development for the industry. Strategy’s Michael Saylor said in an April 25 X post that the Fed’s move means that “banks are now free to begin supporting Bitcoin.”

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