Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill

Lord McDonald of Salford Excerpts

Committee stage
Wednesday 14th February 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Cashman (Lab)]

My Lords, I rise briefly to support the amendments in this group, which seem eminently sensible—that is probably why the Government will reject them. I also support particularly Amendment 30, to which I have added my name. I am not going to go over the points raised by my noble friend Lady Lister, who has outlined the reasons for the importance of this amendment extremely well.

There have been consistent reports of torture being used in Rwanda, by both the military and the police. The United Nations has concluded that Rwanda does not have in place the necessary safeguards against torture or the structures to respond to it. Recent reports also confirm that torture persists in Rwanda, along with continued risks of refoulement to third countries. It is clear in those reports that Rwanda does not have in place safeguards against torture, or an effective process for responding to the allegations of torture. There is a long list of cases and reports set out by the eminent organisation Redress, and I note them for the record in Hansard.

At the UN Human Rights Council universal periodic review of Rwanda in January 2021, as has been cited by my noble friend Lady Lister, the United Kingdom Government criticised Rwanda for

“extrajudicial killings, death in custody, enforced disappearances and torture”.

I ask the Minister: what has been the miraculous turnaround in the past three years?

[Lord McDonald of Salford (CB)]

My Lords, I support the case put by the noble Lord, Lord Cashman, and ask about a current torture case concerning a journalist called Dieudonné Niyonsenga. Last month he appeared in a court in Kigali on appeal; he was sentenced three years ago to seven years in prison. He appeared in court with a wound in his head and he claimed, in that hearing, that he had been tortured. His case has been taken up by the Committee to Protect Journalists. This is not something theoretical or in the past; it is happening right now.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the expert contribution of the noble Lord, Lord McDonald. I offer Green support for all the amendments in this group. I particularly highlight and commend the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, and her allies for highlighting something that is crucial, but I feel that has been covered powerfully, so I will simply address most of the other amendments in this group.

It is worth stressing that the amendments would remove the legal fiction that Rwanda must be treated conclusively as safe by the courts and other decision-makers. They would allow the consideration of evidence. I am speaking in the midst of many eminent lawyers, so I will focus on the politics of this. We live in a world in which we are often told we are living with post-truth politics. At the weekend, I was in the constituency of Kingswood knocking on doors. I met some people there who were living in a post-truth environment—people who had disappeared down some very dark conspiracy rabbit holes. When you are knocking on doors, of course it is impossible to attempt to extract people from those rabbit holes in the couple of minutes you have, but it is truly terrifying—I have to say that most of them will be voting for the Reform party on Thursday, which is something the Government should have great concern about for all kinds of reasons.

Post-truth politics is one thing, but what we confront with the Rwanda Bill is post-truth law. The noble Lord, Lord Clarke, said—I wrote down his words—that he was

“completely flabbergasted by the constitutional implications”.

What are the constitutional implications of post-truth law? Nothing is weighed on the reality of the world.

I want to pick up the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Deben, about the duties of this House. Surely it is the duty of this House to ensure that we have truth- based law.

Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill

Lord McDonald of Salford Excerpts

Committee stage
Monday 12th February 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stewart of Dirleton (Con)]

People cannot be refouled to a different country under this treaty. They can be sent back to the United Kingdom; that is as far as it goes.

[Lord McDonald of Salford (CB)]

The Minister rests a great deal on a signature on a treaty with a country that—with the current Government—has in the last decade refouled over 4,000 refugees sent by Israel to Rwanda. That was the current Government of Rwanda behaving badly with refoulement. Why is the Minister so confident that the same Government are so fundamentally different and reformed?

[Lord Stewart of Dirleton (Con)]

Well, my Lords, the treaty is governed by our laws, by the Government of Rwanda and by international law. For a former diplomat, the noble Lord seems to have very little confidence in the ability of treaties to regulate the conduct of Governments between one another.

Northern Ireland Protocol Bill

Lord McDonald of Salford Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 11th October 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord McDonald of Salford (CB)]

My Lords, no matter his verbal dexterity and acknowledged charm, the Minister was unable to present this Bill as anything other than what the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, called “a manifest breach of international law”. Many noble Lords taking part in this afternoon’s debate have urged the Government to reconsider. I add my voice to theirs, for three foreign policy reasons.

First, the UK’s reputation for standing by the agreements it signs is as important to its standing in the world as the excellence of its Armed Forces. For my whole career at the Foreign Office, the UK made the case for a rules-based international order. Without rules—all rules, not just the ones you like—the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must. Many of the foreign diplomats on the other side of the negotiating table in my career were unhappy with British advocacy of rules; they pointed out that my wily predecessors had written many of those rules expressly to suit British purposes. Now, the Government propose to set aside an agreement which they co-wrote less than three years ago. At the very least, we invite bemused puzzlement.

Secondly, the Bill not only damages our overall reputation but specifically damages relations with key external partners. We have definitively left the European Union but it remains our neighbour. We benefit from a constructive relationship with our larger neighbour. Brussels has repeatedly made clear two things: first, its willingness to negotiate implementation of the protocol, and, secondly, its settled view that a unilateral move to set aside the protocol would be seen as an act of bad faith. We hear a lot these days about a reset in London’s relations with Brussels, about improved atmospherics and better personal relations. This Bill imperils all that and the Government must know it. If the Bill passes and is implemented, the EU would feel justified in retaliating; after all, it has warned us often enough that that would happen.

Thirdly, the noble Lord, Lord Cormack, referred to the President of the United States and the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, disputed the importance of his role. Yet President Biden identifies himself as an Irish Catholic. He takes a close interest in what happens in all of Ireland. His Administration have signalled repeatedly their unhappiness with this unilateral action. Having left our regional club, the views of our main ally and partner should loom even larger in our calculations.

Parliament is sovereign but it is not immune from the consequences of its actions. Although Parliament can pass this Bill, it should weigh the international consequences before doing so. If the Government are wise, they will drop the Bill. Negotiation, without the threat of unilateral action, would be far more likely to deliver the result which everyone in your Lordships’ House desires.