Plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda becomes UK law
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Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda will become law, after being approved by the House of Lords.
Not everyone is happy with the plan and it has faced a lot of criticism, including from people in his own party.
On Monday, the plan - known as a bill - was sent back and forth between the peers in the House of Lords and the MPs in the House of Commons five times with changes, before the peers eventually ended the debate after many hours, approving the bill at around midnight.
The bill will now be sent to the King for Royal Ascent on Tuesday, where it will officially become law.
But it could still be held up by legal challenges in the courts.
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Why do asylum seekers enter the UK on small boats?
What is the Rwanda plan supposed to do?
The government says the aim of the plan is to try to stop migrants from travelling to the UK illegally on small boats across the English Channel.
It aims to do this by flying some asylum seekers who have made it to the UK, to Rwanda, a country in Africa 4,000 miles away.
Once they are there they will be allowed to apply for the right to live in the African country but can not come back to the UK.
Home Secretary James Cleverly flew to Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda, to sign a deal as part of the plan
What have people said about the plan?
Home Secretary James Cleverly said passing the bill was a "landmark moment in our plan to stop the boats".
But shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper called the Rwanda plan an "extortionately expensive gimmick".
Charities and leading human rights groups are unhappy and have described the plan as a "breach of international law".
A charity called Care4Calais - which helped block flights to Rwanda last year - said it has hired hundreds of volunteers to help find the people who are set to be removed to Rwanda, to offer them legal support.
When will people get sent to Rwanda?
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that the flights to take some asylum seekers to Rwanda will take off within 10 to 12 weeks, (around late June or early July) missing his original spring target.
He said that the flights to Rwanda were booked and that 500 staff were ready to escort migrants "all the way to Rwanda".
"Plans are in place. And these flights will go, come what may," he said, adding he wanted to create "a drumbeat of multiple flights a month... because that's how you build a systematic deterrent and that's how you'll stop the boats".
- Published18 January
