Rishi Sunak's flagship 'Stop the Boats' bill passes, 5 killed trying to reach English coast

April 23 (UPI) -- British lawmakers passed legislation early Tuesday allowing the government to deport asylum seekers who arrive without permission to Rwanda.

After three months of so-called parliamentary ping-pong in which the bill was sent back and forth between the lower and upper houses of parliament with neither side willing to compromise the House of Lords yielded to the primacy of the Commons , allowing it to pass unopposed a few minutes after midnight.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hailed the passage of what he said was the "toughest piece of legislation ever introduced to tackle illegal immigration."

"Start the flights. Stop the boats. That's what this bill delivers," he wrote in a post on X of the law declaring Rwanda to be a "safe" country to which asylum seekers can now legally be sent.

The breakthrough came after the government provided last minute assurances that Afghans who fought alongside British forces in Afghanistan and are already in Britain would be allowed to remain no matter how they got there.

The government is now expected to put into motion plans to identify which asylum seekers to deport with the first flights taking off for Kigali in 10 to 12 weeks .

But the move drew fierce criticism from opposition Labor, which vowed to repeal the legislation if it wins an election due to be held by the end of the year, along with charities and human rights groups that allege it breaches international law.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper in an interview Tuesday morning called the plan "an extortionately expensive gimmick rather than a serious plan to tackle dangerous boat crossings," pledging that no asylum seekers would be sent to Rwanda under a Labor government.

It may also face further legal challenges -- both to the law itself and from individuals who may be able to oppose deportation orders in court on the basis of their personal history and circumstances.

Care4Calais recently announced it would try to pre-empt government ID'ing of people for deportation and offer them legal assistance upfront to fight to remain in Britain.

The Rwanda bill is enabling legislation for the government's Illegal Migration Bill , passed in April 2023, which requires the Home Office to detain and remove people who arrive in Britain without advance permission and then claim asylum to their own country, or a third country, but only if it was "safe" to do so.

However, the legislation could not be enforced until now because there was nowhere the government could legally deport people to.

Sunak is banking the prospect of being sent to Rwanda will deter migrants and asylum seekers from coming to Britain enabling him to deliver on his "Stop the Boats" pledge, one of five key promises he made in January 2023, shortly after coming into office.

Only hours after the bill passed the French coastguard reported that five migrants, including a 4-year-old girl, had died in the English Channel trying to make it to Britain in a small boat.

A major rescue operation was launched after the boat began taking on water off the small resort town of Wimereux, just north of Boulogne on the northern coast of France at around 5:30 a.m. local time.

Emergency services spent an extensive period on the beach attempting to resuscitate the child who was traveling with her father, said Wimereux mayor Jean-Luc Dubaele, confirming her death. The father was among the survivors.

Wimereux was the scene of a similar tragedy in January when five Syrians died after their boat capsized in icy waters just off the town. They were among a group of about 70 people attempting to get off on boats from the town's beach in the early hours of Jan. 14.