Sunak promised on Monday to start sending asylum seekers to Rwanda within 10 to 12 weeks as the upper house of parliament finally passed the required legislation, delayed for weeks by attempts to alter the plan.
Sunak said the government had booked commercial charter planes and trained staff to take migrants to Rwanda, a policy he hopes will boost his Conservative Party’s flagging fortunes before an election later this year.
The House of Lords refused to back the divisive legislation without additional safeguards but relented after Sunak said the government would force parliament to sit as late into Monday night as necessary to get it passed.
Tens of thousands of migrants, many fleeing wars and poverty in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, have reached Britain in recent years by crossing the English Channel in small boats on risky journeys organised by people-smuggling gangs.
More than 6,000 have arrived in Britain already this year, a rise of around a quarter on the same period last year.
