The British Parliament passes the controversial Rwanda asylum deportation law

Welcome back to World Brief, where we go to the United Kingdomhas recently been approved Rwanda Security Actmassive flooding Chinaand demarcation efforts between Armenia And Azerbaijan.

Welcome back to World Brief, where we go to the United Kingdomhas recently been approved Rwanda Security Actmassive flooding Chinaand demarcation efforts between Armenia And Azerbaijan.

London concludes Rwanda deal

Five migrants, including a child, died on Tuesday while trying to cross the English Channel into Britain – just hours after the British parliament passed controversial legislation allowing London to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.

“We introduced the Rwanda Act to stop vulnerable migrants from making dangerous crossings and to break the business model of the criminal gangs that exploit them,” British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said, pointing to Tuesday’s deaths as “what happened tragic happens” when migration proceeds unchecked. More than 6,000 people – many in small, packed boats – have migrated to Britain via the English Channel this year.

Under the so-called Safety of Rwanda Bill, anyone who arrived ‘illegally’ in Britain after January 1, 2022 – that is, asylum seekers who arrived without permission from another safe country, essentially those who arrived by dinghy via the UK Channel – will be sent to the Rwandan capital Kigali, where they will either be granted asylum and resettled in Rwanda or sent to a third country. According to the BBC, 52,000 people in Britain meet these criteria. Sunak said the first flights would depart in 10 to 12 weeks, with several flights taking place each month. He did not specify how many flights were planned, nor for how many migrants.

The law forces British judges to consider Rwanda “a safe country” and gives ministers the power to ignore future rulings by international courts that may conflict with the measure. There are no provisions to change the law if conditions in Kigali change. Although Rwanda is considered one of Africa’s most stable countries, some regional experts have accused President Paul Kagame of suppressing political dissent and other authoritarian practices.

Rwandan government spokesperson Yolande Makolo said Kigali is “pleased” with the British parliament’s decision and “looks forward to welcoming those who have moved to Kigali.”

Then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson first presented the Rwanda bill in April 2022, only for the European Court of Human Rights to block it two months later. The UK Supreme Court subsequently ruled in November 2023 that Rwanda was not a safe country for migrants to be transported to, arguing that they were at risk of being sent back to their country of origin. The court pointed to evidence of Rwanda’s poor human rights record, as well as “serious and systematic flaws” in the way the country processes asylum applications. It also noted that in 2021 the British government itself criticized Rwanda for “extrajudicial killings, deaths in custody, enforced disappearances and torture.”

Still, Sunak pushed for the law to be passed, hoping to appease his divided Conservative Party ahead of the general election due to take place in January 2025 at the latest. The opposition Labor party promised to scrap the law if it takes power. “No foreign court will stop us from allowing flights to depart,” Sunak said.

Still, analysts expect the Rwanda bill to face numerous legal hurdles, both from individuals facing deportation and rights groups. Amnesty International UK said the plan “is a battle ax for the international legal protection of some of the world’s most vulnerable people,” and United Nations special rapporteurs warned airlines that they “could be complicit in violating internationally protected human rights and court orders” as they carry out the flights.

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Heavy flooding. Persistent heavy rain since Friday has caused massive flooding and prompted Chinese authorities to raise the alarm in southern Guangdong province on Tuesday to the highest level of a four-level rain warning system. Floods of this magnitude typically do not occur in the region until late June. Yet flash floods have killed at least four people and forced more than 110,000 others to evacuate in the past week. At least 25,000 Chinese have been displaced to emergency shelters, and another ten people are missing. State media called the crisis a “once in a century” flood, and local officials warned of more.

This year, Guangdong has already recorded the highest monthly rainfall since records began in 1959, with at least 44 rivers in the Pearl River basin rising above the warning level. According to a United Nations report published on Tuesday, Asia was the continent most affected by climate and weather events in 2023. “Floods were the leading cause of death by a significant margin in reported events in 2023,” the World Meteorological Organization said. more than 2,000 people were killed and another 9 million people were directly affected.

Demarcation in progress. Armenia and Azerbaijan installed their first border marker on Tuesday as part of an agreement that American and European diplomats called an important step toward peace. As part of the deal, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan agreed to give Baku four abandoned villages that Armenian forces captured from Azerbaijan in the 1990s. Several small sections of a crucial trade highway to Georgia may also be transferred.

“Outside the internationally recognized borders, Armenia has no ambitions, no claims, and we hope that during the border demarcation process the territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia will be restored,” Pashinyan said.

Last September, Azerbaijani forces retook the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region from Armenian separatists in a one-day lightning offensive. Since then, several countries have tried to mediate talks between the two nations, without success. Although foreign officials praised the start of the demarcation, Armenians near the settlements protested the decision, arguing that they are now on the front lines and could become isolated from the rest of the country.

Suspended services. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry announced plans on Tuesday to suspend consular services for men of military combat age living abroad. Thousands of Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 have left Ukraine to avoid conscription in Kiev’s war against Russia or for other purposes such as work or school. Ukraine’s martial law bans all men aged 18 and over from leaving the country. While the announcement did not specify which consular services would be affected, it did say that the new restrictions “will not affect the provision of emergency consular assistance to Ukrainian citizens abroad.”

Ukrainian officials fear a full-scale Russian offensive could take place in the coming weeks, with Ukrainian troops reportedly involved in 86 combat situations on Monday alone. To prepare for such an attack, President Volodymyr Zelensky lowered the conscription age from 27 to 25 earlier this month.

Meanwhile, the US Senate is expected to vote on Tuesday or Wednesday on whether to approve a $95 billion emergency package, of which $61 billion would go to support Ukraine’s war effort. The bill also provides $26 billion in aid to Israel and humanitarian aid to war zones, such as Gaza, and $8 billion to counter China in the Indo-Pacific, especially regarding Taiwan. US President Joe Biden is expected to approve the legislation and is already preparing a new aid package for Kiev worth around $1 billion, CNN reported.

Odds and Ends

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape criticized Biden on Sunday for suggesting “cannibals” may have eaten the US president’s late uncle after he was shot down over the area during World War II. “President Biden’s comments may have been a slip of the tongue; But my country does not deserve to be labeled as such,” Marape said. U.S. military records say nothing about whether Biden’s relative was shot or eaten, only that the plane was forced to “land in the ocean” off the northern coast of New Guinea for unknown reasons and that ”