Britain’s King Charles has given his assent to legislation central to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
This happened while police authorities in the U.K. said they arrested nationals from Sudan and South Sudan who were facilitating illegal migration into the nation.
Royal Assent is the final stage in the legislative process, and effectively rubber stamps the decision taken by parliament earlier this week to approve the bill after a long battle between the government and opponents of the plan.
The Royal Assent was announced in the House of Lords on Thursday, meaning the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill will now become law.
Parliament approved the legislation in the early hours of Tuesday morning. On Monday, Sunak said he expected the first flights to Rwanda to take off in 10 to 12 weeks after it was passed.
While British authorities signed off on the deal with Rwanda, police in the nation announced the arrest of another man, after five migrants, including a child, died this week trying to cross the Channel from France.
Britain’s National Crime Agency, NCA, said it arrested an 18-year-old from Sudan late Wednesday on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration and entering the U.K. illegally.
The arrest came as part of an investigation into the Channel small boat crossing which resulted in the deaths of five people on a French beach on Tuesday.
The NCA detained two Sudanese nationals aged 19 and 22, and a South Sudan national, also 22, on Tuesday and Wednesday, also on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration and entering the U.K. illegally.
The 19-year-old has been released without charge, and is now being dealt with by immigration authorities, the NCA said.
The latest arrest took place at Manston in Kent, southeast England, and the suspect was taken into custody for questioning.
Three men, a woman and a seven-year-old girl lost their lives in the early hours of Tuesday in the sea near the northern French town of Wimereux. They had been in a packed boat that set off before dawn but whose engine stopped a few hundred meters from the beach. Several people then fell into the water. About 50 people were rescued and brought ashore but emergency services were unable to resuscitate the five.
Fifteen people have died this year trying to cross the busy shipping lane from northern France to southern England, according to an AFP tally.
That is already more than the 12 who died in the whole of last year.
