UK PM Rishi Sunak faces crucial week ahead over his refugee policy

London: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is facing a crucial vote in Parliament this week to decide on his policy of shifting asylum seekers to Rwanda, Reuters reported.

The vote on Tuesday holds importance as it will decide on a legislation that will override the country’s human right laws to send immigrants to Rwanda ahead of national election this year.

The country has long been discussing the rampant issue of illegal immigrants arriving on its shores.

While Sunak is actively pressing for the law, some moderate Conservatives politicians worry about the law tending to breach UK’s human rights obligations.

However, right-wing lawmakers looking forward to the government to go ahead.

The refugee policy or what is called Rwanda policy has become very crucial for the government.

‘The Rwanda policy has become a totemic struggle and it has liberated the factions in the Conservative Party to continue their all-out war,’ Tony Travers, a politics professor at the London School of Economics, reportedly said.

Meanwhile, a ruling by the Supreme Court last month said the proposed law could put genuine refugees at risk of being returned to their home countries to face violence or ill-treatment.

This potential situation where genuine refugees suffering could breach British and international law.

The Sunak Administration has spent a quarter of a billion pounds on the scheme, according to Reuters, to stop immigrants from Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq arriving at the south coast of UK from France.

In the event of Sunak failing to garner enough vote, he will face calls to hold a general election.

Meanwhile a senior minister with the government Michael Gove ‘played down’ the possibility of an election, according to the report.