Musings From Abroad

UK lawmakers in Sunak’s party question Rwanda migration bill

Published

12 months ago

December 11, 2023

British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak’s planned migration deal with Rwanda has suffered another blow as lawmakers in his party on Monday insisted that his planned emergency law was not tough enough.

The government’s plan to send thousands of migrants to Rwanda was ruled illegal by the UK Supreme Court last month, ruling that Rwanda could not be regarded as a safe third country.

As a result, Sunak and Rwanda signed a new treaty, and the Prime Minister also introduced emergency legislation that would override both national and international human rights laws and stop deportations. Parliament will hold a first vote on the legislation on Tuesday.

A loss in Tuesday’s election would be catastrophic for the plan and seriously impair his premiership since opinion polls currently show the Conservatives behind the opposition Labour Party by roughly 20 points. However, his party’s detractors presented a dismal picture of the legislation’s prospects, though they did not immediately state that they would vote it down.

Sunak’s spokesperson had earlier told reporters, “We remain confident in our approach; it is both the right and only approach, and we are confident that parliamentarians will rightly scrutinise it but agree with our position.

“We continue to listen carefully to MPs (members of parliament), and we are confident this is the toughest version of legislation that will enable us to stop the boats.”

Following a review of the proposed legislation, members of Sunak’s Conservative Party concluded that it was insufficient and offered only a “partial and incomplete solution” to the issue of deportations being halted by legal challenges.

A legal opinion of a “Star Chamber” committee of senior Conservative lawmakers stated that “resolving, comprehensively, the issues raised by this analysis would require very significant amendments… and the final Bill would look very different.”

Danny Kruger, from the New Conservatives grouping in Sunak’s party, said, “The bill doesn’t yet work, and we’re hopeful that the government will come forward with improvements.”.

Another Conservative lawmaker, Simon Clarke, said the “Star Chamber’s advice was “very concerning” and there were “clear and specific challenges” to the government.

In recent years, illegal migrants from the Middle East and Africa have become a major source of concern in Europe. A record 45,000 people had flown across the English Channel in small boats as of June 2023.

Related Topics:Britain Featured Rishi Sunak Rwanda

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Musings From Abroad

Finnish court imprisons Nigeria’s Simon Ekpa for aiding terrorism

Published

17 hours ago

November 21, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Simon Ekpa, a Nigerian separatist leader based abroad, has been placed under detention by the Päijät Häme District Court in Finland on suspicion of inciting others to commit acts of terrorism.

According to the local daily, Helsingin Sanomat, the court rendered the ruling on Thursday following his arraignment by the Central Criminal Police for his involvement in the terror attacks that have afflicted the southeast area of Nigeria.

“The police suspect that the man has promoted his efforts from Finland with means that have led to violence against civilians in the region of South-Eastern Nigeria,” stated Otto Hiltunen, the crime commissioner and investigation head.

“The man has carried out his activity, among other things, on his social media channels.”

Hiltunen also informed the court that the police suspected four additional individuals in Finland of funding Ekpa’s activities.

According to the story, Ekpa is of Nigerian descent and was born in the Finnish city of Lahti.

His offence occurred between August 23, 2021, and November 18, 2024, according to court documents cited in the publication.

Ekpa is not the only person the police have arrested. In February 2023, they caught him at a private Lahtian flat, but he was freed the same day.

Through the Eastern Security Network (ESN) and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement, Ekpa has continued to be outspoken on social media, raising money and agitating for a Biafran nation to secede. In the southeast part of Nigeria, both factions have been involved in acts of violence, murders, and maimings.

Since gaining formal independence in 1960, Nigeria has seen the emergence of several separatist organisations. The latest surge of calls for self-determination among different ethnic groups has been louder under its immediate previous President Muhammadu Buhari.

Musings From Abroad

Malian singer Rokia Traore arrested in Italy, to be sent to Belgium

Published

2 days ago

November 20, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

After Italy’s top court denied her appeal, well-known Malian singer, Rokia Traore, who was detained in Rome in June due to a global child custody dispute, will be sent over to Belgium in the next few days, her attorney announced on Wednesday.

The 50-year-old Traore is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR and one of Africa’s most well-known vocalists.

“Rokia suffered an injustice. She was arrested without the Belgian criminal court hearing her voice. Now, the battle for Rokia’s rights moves to Brussels,” lawyer Maddalena Del Re said in a statement to Reuters.

The attorney also stated that in its decision late Tuesday, Italy’s Court of Cassation upheld an extradition decision from the European Court of Justice.

Under a European arrest order, Traore was taken into custody on June 20 at the Fiumicino airport in Rome. In October 2023, she was given a two-year prison sentence in Belgium related to a dispute over her daughter’s custody.

She had flown to perform outside Rome’s Colosseum, and she has been imprisoned in Civitavecchia, close to the Italian city, since her detention at Fiumicino.

Lawyer Del Re said that because a conviction was rendered without the defendant’s presence, the Belgian process goes against both international norms and Italian constitutional standards.

After she disregarded a court order to turn over her baby to her Belgian father, the singer’s divorced ex-partner, she was initially taken into custody in France in 2020 on a Belgian arrest warrant.

She disobeyed orders not to leave France until her extradition case was handled by taking a private jet to Mali months after being conditionally released. Mali is where her daughter resides.