Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda Deportation Bill has contentiously passed, after a plethora of parliamentary ping-pong between the two houses.

After gaining royal assent on Tuesday, the bill is expected to be passed into law imminently, and the Home Office have already whittled their list of deportees to 350, who have been determined to present a weak legal threat of successfully combatting the government’s plans to deport them.

An increasingly confident Downing Street is aiming to send over 300 people off to Rwanda by the end of spring, an ambitious target when considering it has yet to deport just one, thanks to judicial barriers and charities stopping flights setting off.

Care4Calais, a charity that has been integral in blocking the government’s plans to launch flights going to Rwanda previously, will now recommence their legal challenges and offer support to immigrants being deported, as the government start to notify those they will forcibly remove from the country.

Care4Calais, a charity that has been integral to blocking the government’s plans to launch flights going to Rwanda [...] will recommence their legal challenges and offer support to immigrants... ”

This charity is not the only organisation seeking to help, with individual lawyers speaking out against this policy and have promised to help isolated individuals, challenging the government’s claim to deportation and tackling this on a case-by-case approach.

Stating “Human rights still apply”, lawyers are illustrating their willingness to present legal obstacles to halt this governmental scheme.

This would mean such individuals would be taken off the flight list and permitted to stay, without threat of being sent to the East African country.

The Rwanda Scheme, first proposed by Boris Johnson in April 2022, has faced legal opposition and stagnation since its proposition. There have been legal challenges with the highest court in the land, the UK Supreme Court also being involved, declaring the bill unlawful and thus not permissible in November 2023.

However, the government have stuck by this initiative, advocating Rwanda’s safety, despite human rights advocates and serious concerns over real security of Rwanda. The scheme is also exorbitantly priced, with it costing £1.8 million for just one of the 300 people being deported, according to the National Audit Office.

A core reasons the Conservatives are pushing this agenda is to demonstrate their tough stance on immigration and crack down on the influx of small boats crossing the channel, for the imminent and upcoming general election that will likely be later this year.

Yet a plane is still to actually set flight.

It is currently unclear if Sunak and his government will be able to launch a flight to Rwanda just yet, what with charities planning strong legal battles, drawing upon judicial back up to solidify their threat.

The bill continues to bring contention, and will likely continue to do so when this gets passed into law, with a consistent battle between charities, lawyers and the Conservative government.