The British government wants to "take back control" of immigration and asylum laws from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
In a Tuesday evening speech at the Conservative Party's autumn conference in Birmingham, immigration minister Suella Braverman said that people who arrive by unauthorised means should not be allowed to claim asylum in the UK and she doubled down on contentious plans to send some asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda.
However, Braverman acknowledged that a legal challenge to the policy means it's unlikely anyone will be deported to the east African country this year.
"We need to find a way to make the Rwanda scheme work," said Braverman.
"We cannot allow a foreign court to undermine the sovereignty of our borders," she continued, to cheers and applause from the audience.
"A few months ago the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg did just that. By a closed process, with an unnamed judge, and without any representation by the UK. A European Court overruled our Supreme Court. And as a result our first flight to Rwanda was grounded. We need to take back control."
She didn't say how the government intends to 'take back control'.
Under a deal signed in April, Britain plans to send some migrants who arrive in the UK as stowaways or in small boats to Rwanda, where their asylum claims would be processed. Those granted asylum would stay in the African country rather than returning to the UK.
The British government has said the policy will deter people-trafficking gangs who ferry migrants across the English Channel. Human rights groups say it is unworkable and inhumane to send people thousands of miles away to a country they don’t want to live in.
Braverman said many migrants were
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