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Home secretary James Cleverly insisted on Monday that the UK was still committed to a plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda after he earlier appeared to downplay the significance of the stalled scheme.
The “deterrent effect of Rwanda” is an “incredibly important part of the basket of responses that we have . . . to drive down small boats arrivals,” Cleverly told the House of Commons in response to questions from MPs.
The comments came after Cleverly, who has been in post for 14 days, sparked ire from some Conservative backbenchers over the weekend when he said the Rwanda scheme was not the “be all and end all” of the government’s strategy to reduce irregular migration to the UK.
The Rwanda plan has been at the centre of the government’s migration strategy for years but earlier this month the Supreme Court ruled the policy was unlawful because there was a real risk asylum seekers would not have their claims properly assessed in Rwanda.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has insisted he would still press ahead with the plan by agreeing a new treaty with Kigali to address the court’s concerns. Sunak has also vowed to pass emergency legislation to deem the African nation’s asylum system “safe” in law.
“The excellent working relationship we have with Rwanda will give us the opportunity to have a treaty that addresses the issues in the Supreme Court judgment,” Cleverly told MPs on Monday.
But the home secretary declined to say whether the government’s emergency legislation would disapply international treaties governing the treatment of asylum seekers, a key demand from right-wing Tory MPs.
Sunak’s spokesman said on Monday the Rwanda treaty and accompanying legislation is “due to be published in the coming weeks” and was “still being finalised”.
A Rwandan official said that the government is “working with the UK to formalise the elements of the [memorandum of understanding] within a treaty”.
The government came under renewed pressure last week after official data showed that net immigration had hit a record high of 745,000 in 2022 despite years of Tory pledges to cut the numbers.
The figures showed inflows were increasingly driven by work-related migration, in particular in the care sector, where the government relaxed visa rules last year because of a worsening staffing crisis.
Business secretary Kemi Badenoch told Times Radio the government “cannot allow” migrant policy to be dictated by the needs of a single sector, referring to the increasing number of people coming over on health and social care worker visas.
She added that the minimum salary threshold for skilled worker visas of £26,000 is “too low”.
Government officials said Cleverly was working on a package of measures to reduce net migration to the UK, which include increasing the salary threshold of £26,200 for the skilled workers scheme and the minimum level of £20,960 for care workers through the health and care visa scheme, neither of which have risen as rapidly as inflation or average earnings.
He is also looking at limiting the number of dependants that workers can bring over under the scheme.
Sunak’s spokesperson said that the government was “actively considering what further measures could be introduced”.