UK leading the way with Rwanda policy as other countries look at ‘similar solutions’, Sunak says
The UK is leading the way with its Rwanda deportation scheme as other European countries look at “similar solutions” to tackle illegal immigration, the prime minister has said.
Rishi Sunak also said he discussed illegal immigration during a “meeting and a drink” with Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni as world leaders attend the G20 summit in Delhi.
Mr Sunak said they discussed how they can “work together” to tackle the “shared challenge” of illegal immigration in Europe.
The Conservative government wants to send tens of thousands of migrants more than 6,000 miles away from the UK to Rwanda as part of a £120m deal agreed with the east African country in 2022.
Critics have claimed the policy breaks international human rights laws, and no one has been sent to the country yet after ongoing legal challenges in the courts.
Mr Sunak has said he will do “whatever is necessary” to get the removal flights going after a Court of Appeal ruling in June said the scheme is unlawful.
The government later confirmed it would be submitting an appeal to the Supreme Court to try and reverse the ruling.
Sunak says UK has taken ‘radical action’
Speaking about the Rwanda policy to reporters in Delhi, Mr Sunak said on Saturday: “I’ve always said that this is a global issue, this issue of illegal migration. It is only growing in importance and will require global coordination to resolve.
“I have said Britain would be tough but fair, and where Britain leads others will follow. We have been willing to take bold and radical action to tackle this problem.
“I said that other countries would look at similar solutions, and you can start to see that they are with the news from Austria this week, and more broadly across Europe.
“You can just see this issue growing and growing in salience, and I think that we have been out in front leading the conversation on this and the need to look at this differently and look at radical solutions.”
Rishi Sunak and Giorgia Meloni in Lithuania earlier this year. Pic: AP
Austria and Denmark consider Rwanda plan
Mr Sunak’s comments come after Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer raised the possibility of deporting illegal immigrants to Rwanda, where their cases for asylum cases would be processed.
Gerhard Karner, Austria’s interior minister, has called for the EU to introduce “asylum procedures in safe third countries” and referred to a model “Denmark and Great Britain are also following”.
Denmark had been in negotiations with Rwanda over the possible transfer of asylum seekers.
However, the plans were put on hold earlier this year as Denmark wants to work for an EU-wide solution.
It comes after Italy’s prime minister, who heads up a right-wing government, defended the UK government’s Rwanda policy in April.
She said it was wrong to refer to it as “deportation” and any suggestion Rwanda does not “respect rights” would be a “racist way of interpreting things”.
However, there are no reports to suggest Italy has been considering sending illegal immigrants to the east African nation.
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Sunak wants UK and Italy to ‘do more together’
Speaking about his meeting with Ms Meloni at the G20 summit, Mr Sunak said: “Obviously (illegal immigration) is something that her and I have talked about a lot and we talked again about how we can work closer together, which we’re already doing.
“But again, what are the opportunities for us to do more together to tackle this shared challenge?”… She and I have a view together, both of us, that this is an important topic that needs us to work together.
“So that won’t be the last of these conversations that I have.”
Mr Sunak is visiting New Delhi for the first as prime minister while he is at the G20 summit.
He has said he is confident a trade deal will be struck between the UK and India after meeting with the country’s prime minister Narendra Modi.
The annual G20 summit brings together leaders from 20 of the world’s largest economies to discuss pressing global issues.
Harriet Harman has suggested a “mini inquiry” into issues raised by the grooming gangs scandal and called on Sir Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch to discuss “terms of reference”.
The Labour peer told Sky’s political editor Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast that there should “openness” to a future probe as long it does not repeat the previous investigations.
In particular, she said people need to be “trained and confident” that they can take on matters “which are in particular communities” without being accused of being racist.
“I think that whether it’s a task force, whether it’s more action plans, whether it’s a a mini inquiry on this, this is something that we need to develop resilience in,” Ms Harman said.
The grooming gangs scandal is back in the spotlight after Elon Musk hit out at the Labour government for rejecting a new national inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham, saying this should be done at a local level instead.
The Tories also previously said an Oldham inquiry should be done locally and in 2015 commissioned a seven-year national inquiry into child sex abuse, led by Professor Alexis Jay, which looked at grooming gangs.
However, they didn’t implement any of its recommendations while in office – and Sir Keir has vowed to do so instead of launching a fresh investigation into the subject.
Ms Harman said she agreed with ministers that there is “no point” in a rerun of the £200m Jay Review, which came on top of a number of locally-led inquiries.
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However, she said there’s “always got to be an openness to further analysis, further consideration of what proposals would move things forward”.
She called on the Conservative Party to start “sensibly discussing with the government what should be the parameters of a future inquiry”, as they “can’t really be arguing they want an absolute repeat of the seven years and £200 million of the Jay inquiry”.
She said the Tories should set out their “terms of reference”, so “the government and everybody can discuss whether or not they’ve already got that sorted”.
Girls as young as 11 were groomed and raped across a number of towns in England – including Oldham, Rochdale, Rotherham and Telford – over a decade ago in a national scandal that was exposed in 2013.
In many cases the victims were white and the perpetrators of south Asian descent – with the local inquiry into Telford finding that exploitation was ignored because of unease about race.
The Jay review did not assess whether ethnicity was a factor in grooming gangs due to poor data, and recommended the compilation of a national core data base on child sex abuse which records the ethnicity of the victim and alleged perpetrator.
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Ms Harman’s comments come after the Labour Metro Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said he believed there was a case for a new “limited national inquiry”.
He told the BBC that a defeated Tory vote on the matter was “opportunism”, but a new probe could “compel people to give evidence who then may have charges to answer and be held to account”.
Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister who has born the brunt of Mr Musk’s attacks, has told Sky News “nothing is off the table” when it comes to a new inquiry – but she will “listen to victims” and not the world’s richest man.
Sir Keir has said he spoke to victims this week and they do not want another inquiry as it would delay the implementations of the Jay review – though his spokesman later indicated one could take place if those affected call for it.
Tory leader Ms Badenoch has argued that the public will start to “worry about a cover-up” if the prime minister resists calls for a national inquiry, and said no one has yet “joined up the dots” on grooming.
New reports suggest the US Senate Banking Committee is looking to create its first crypto subcommittee, while Trump is reportedly eyeing a pro-crypto CFTC Commissioner to take the agency’s helm.
The UK Treasury has amended finance laws to clarify that crypto staking isn’t a collective investment scheme, which a lawyer says is “heavily regulated.”
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