Foreign News
Rishi Sunak faces crunch Rwanda vote as Tory MPs split
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is facing a battle to persuade Tory MPs to back his flagship Rwanda bill, ahead of a key vote today (12).
The legislation seeks to revive the government’s plan to send some asylum seekers to the east African country.MPs on the right of the party have said the bill does not go far enough and will not work in its current form. But more centrist MPs warned against any changes which would breach international law.
Former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace urged his fellow Tory MPs not to “wreck” the government by voting down the bill. He warned against “making the perfect (but unrealistic) the enemy of the good”.
The Safety of Rwanda Bill faces its first Parliamentary test – known as its second reading – on Tuesday, when MPs get a chance to debate and vote on the main principles of the bill.
The aim of the policy is to deter migrants from crossing the Channel and it is central to the government’s plan to “stop the boats” – which Mr Sunak has made one of his key priorities.
A rebellion by Tory MPs could sink the Rwanda scheme and severely damage the prime minister’s authority.
Among those on the right of the party, the New Conservatives group said the bill required “major surgery or replacement”. More than 40 members met on Monday evening to discuss how they would vote. Several MPs leaving the meeting said they were deciding between abstaining or voting against the bill.Two MPs said the group had the numbers to vote the legislation down and that only one or two in meeting had spoken in support of voting for the bill. Members of the group are due to meet Mr Sunak on this morning.
Earlier, the European Research Group – an influential group of Tory MPs also on the right of the party – said the bill provided an “incomplete solution” to the problem of legal challenges that could be mounted against individuals being sent to Rwanda. It said “very significant amendments” would be needed.
The group has not yet decided how to vote on Tuesday. Its chairman Mark Francois called on the government to pull the bill and come up with a revised version without “so many holes in it”.
However, agreeing to the demands of MPs on the right of the party would risk losing the support of more centrist Tories.
Following a meeting on Monday evening, the centrist One Nation group of Conservative MPs, which includes more than 100 MPs, said it was recommending its members vote for the bill at this stage. But the group said it would oppose any future amendments to the bill “that would mean the UK government breaching the rule of law and its international obligations”.
The group’s chairman, former Deputy Prime Minister Damian Green, urged the government to “stand firm against any attempt to amend the bill in a way that would make it unacceptable to those who believe that support for the rule of law is a basic Conservative principle”.
It is very rare for a bill to be defeated at its first Commons hurdle and this has not happened since 1986.
However, Labour and opposition parties have already said they will try and vote it down, meaning the government needs to ensure enough Tory MPs vote for it to allow it to pass.
Tory critics of the bill could decide to allow it to pass at this stage, possibly by abstaining, in the hope of securing concessions from the government as it goes through the Commons.
But some MPs who previously appeared inclined to back the government in Tuesday’s vote, in the hope of amending the bill at a later stage, now seem much more pessimistic about that possibility. “There’s no way we’d have the votes to amend it next year,” one Tory MP told the BBC. “It’s now or never.”
If there are enough rebels to inflict a defeat this would be near-apocalyptic for Mr Sunak in political terms. That prospect may be enough for him to withdraw the bill completely.
Going ahead with the vote and being defeated would potentially presage a leadership election, perhaps even a general election. Those around the PM acknowledge the numbers are tight but say they are confident they can win and insist they are not going to pull the vote.
The government introduced the emergency legislation last week, after the Rwanda policy was ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court.
The bill seeks to stop flights being blocked on legal grounds, by declaring in UK law that Rwanda is a safe country.
Those who want it to go further argue it is still open to legal challenge by individuals, if they can provide compelling evidence their personal circumstances mean they would be at risk of serious harm if they were removed to Rwanda.
In an attempt to win over critics, the government took the unusual step of publishing a summary of its own legal advice on the scheme.
The document says the bill allows for “an exceptionally narrow route to individual challenge” – but that to block all court challenges “would be a breach of international law”.It gives examples such as people in the late stages of pregnancy who are unfit to fly or with very rare medical conditions that could not be cared for in Rwanda.
However, critics argue that even if only some of these claims succeed, they would still clog up the courts and delay removals.
Downing Street said the government would continue to listen to the views of MPs but it believed the bill was “strong enough to achieve its aims”.
(BBC)
Foreign News
Zambia ex-president’s family wins latest legal battle over what should happen to his body
More than a year after the death of Zambia’s former President Edgar Lungu, his family have won their appeal to have his body buried in South Africa where he died – overturning a high court ruling that allowed the Zambian government to repatriate the corpse.
Tuesday’s Supreme Court of Appeal judgement finally puts to rest the legal battle over what should happen to his remains following a long-standing feud between Lungu and his successor, President Hakainde Hichilema.
The Zambian government has said while it disagrees with the ruling it will “not be taking the matter any further”.
It had long argued that, as a former head of state, Lungu should be honoured in the country.
The Zambian government wished to see him laid to rest alongside his predecessors in the special presidential burial ground in the capital, Lusaka.
But Lungu’s family wanted a private burial after negotiations with the government over the funeral arrangements broke down.
“The very ritual intended to bring closure has, instead, pitted family against the state in a hard-fought legal dispute far from the protagonists’ home,” said Justice Raylene May Keightley in Tuesday’s judgement.
Last August, the South African high court in Pretoria ruled that Zambia’s govrnment could repatrite the body and give him a state funeral – an outcome that left Lungu’s relatives visibly distraught in the courtroom.
The family appealed against the decision but, in a surprise announcement in April Zambia’s government said Lungu’s remains had been “formally transferred” to the state by the South African court.
But just a few hours later, the same South African court ordered the Zambian government to return the body until the matter went to court again.
The former president died of an undisclosed illness aged 68 at a clinic in Pretoria. Chaos ensued following his death, with mourners receiving conflicting information from the government and Lungu’s political party, the Patriotic Front (PF).
Two separate mourning periods were announced and at one point there were competing condolence books.
Lungu, who led Zambia from 2015 until 2021, had numerous rows with Hichilema, who was the opposition leader for many years before finally unseating his bitter rival.
After Lungu’s death, his family said the ex-president did not want Hichilema to be at his funeral or “anywhere near” his body.
In this latest ruling at the Supreme Court of Appeal, the judges said it was clear that the former president “viewed himself to be persona non grata in his own country” of Zambia and “felt that he would not be afforded a dignified send-off” if his successor was present.
[BBC]
More than 5,300 people remain trapped in online scam centres in Myanmar near the Thai border, despite a multinational crackdown in the region last year, a human rights group says.
The Thai-based Civil Society Network for Human Trafficking Victim Assistance (CSNHTV) sent a letter to Thai police urging them to take action. It said many of those trapped were foreign nationals held at four locations inside areas controlled by the Myanmar Democratic Karen Buddhist Army militia.
According to the CSNHTV, an estimated 1,600 people trapped are Chinese nationals, and about 200 are people of Myanmar, along with people from the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brazil, Russia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe.
“Many of these compounds have yet to be dismantled or subjected to rescue operations to free all remaining victims,” it said.
“As a result, these syndicates continue to engage in online fraud and human trafficking, causing harm to victims around the world, particularly in the United States and Europe.”
Scam centres in Southeast Asia, including those in Myanmar and Cambodia, run illegal online schemes that are designed to defraud people worldwide.
The centres grew significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic in the region, and were initially tied to poorly run casinos and online gambling. They have now become a multibillion-dollar industry, according to the United Nations.
A UN report in February said the facilities are mostly staffed by foreign nationals who have been trafficked by criminal gangs and subjected to abuse.
It found instances of “torture and other ill-treatment, sexual abuse and exploitation, forced abortions, food deprivation, solitary confinement, among other grave human rights abuses”.
“The litany of abuse is staggering and at the same time heart-breaking,” UN Human Rights chief Volker Turk said.
“Yet, rather than receiving protection, care and rehabilitation as well as the pathways to justice and redress to which they are entitled, victims too often face disbelief, stigmatisation and even further punishment.”
[Aljazeera]
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has landed in Pakistan for a state visit – his first overseas trip since the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28.
His Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar received the Iranian leader at a military base near capital Islamabad on Tuesday.
During his day long visit, Pezeshkian, who is accompanied by a high-level delegation that includes ministers and senior officials, will hold talks with Sharif, and is also expected to meet with Zardari.
Pezeshkian arrived aboard a special aircraft named Minab 168, a tribute to the 168 people killed in an attack on an Iranian girls’ school by US and Israeli forces in the Iranian city of Minab on the first day of the war in February.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who had arrived separately earlier in the day from Oman, was also part of the delegation.
The Iranians are due to hold bilateral talks with premier Sharif, followed by a delegation-level meeting between the two sides.
According to Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Senate Chairman Yousaf Raza Gilani, National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar will also call on the Iranian leader.
“During the visit, the two sides will review the full spectrum of bilateral relations and explore new avenues to further deepen cooperation across diverse sectors, including trade, energy, border security, people-to-people exchanges, and regional connectivity,” the ministry said in a statement on Monday.
Pezeshkian’s visit follows the crucial first round of talks between the United States and Iran, mediated by Pakistan and Qatar, in the Swiss city of Bürgenstock to end the war on Iran.
As part of the agreement, the US will release $12bn in frozen Iranian funds. The US has also announced a temporary easing of international sanctions on Iran, allowing it to sell its oil and petrochemicals until August 21. The talks concluded with a 60-day roadmap towards a final deal.
[Aljazeera]
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