The "Safety of Rwanda Bill" is designed to overcome a ruling by the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court that said the scheme proposed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's government that would witness thousands of migrants sent to the East African nation was unlawful.
But the proposals are set to cause divisions in Sunak's governing Conservative party and could trigger further legal challenges, though the British prime minister said the "Safety of Rwanda Bill" would mean the policy would no longer be bogged down in the courts.
"Our new landmark emergency legislation will control our borders, deter people taking perilous journeys across the channel (and) end the continuous legal challenges filling our courts," Sunak said on X.
"It is parliament that should decide who comes to this country, not criminal gangs," he added.
The bill says that the law should bypass Britain's Human Rights Act, HRA and "any other provision or rule of domestic law, and any interpretation of international law by the court or tribunal."
That plan is at the center of Sunak's immigration policy. Its success is likely to be key to the fortunes of his Conservative Party that is trailing about 20 points in opinion polls, before an election expected next year where the immigration is among the biggest concerns for voters.
Former British Home Secretary Suella Braverman delivers a statement at the House of Commons in London, Dec. 6, 2023.
Suella Braverman, sacked from the government last month but who as interior minister had been responsible for immigration, had earlier called for the new law to contain legal provisions to ignore the European Convention on Human Rights and the HRA.
"The Conservative Party faces electoral oblivion in a matter of months, if we introduce yet another bill destined to fail," Braverman told parliament.
Sunak has vowed flights would begin in the spring next year, and the proposed law said courts should ignore any injunction from the European Court of Human Rights to block flights.