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Added on the 17/01/2024 22:46:07 - Copyright : AFPTV - First images
Protesters in London try to block the removal of migrants from their temporary accommodation, as the UK government began detaining people before controversial deportation flights to Rwanda start. The protesters occupy the road in front of a bus believed to be waiting to take asylum seekers from a hotel in the Peckham area of the British capital to an accommodation barge moored off the south coast of England. A London Metropolitan Police statement said a number of people had been arrested. IMAGES
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak tells the House of Commons he has "absolute conviction" in his government's plan to send migrants to Rwanda ahead of a vote in parliament on the bill which has exposed schisms in his ruling Conservative party. The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, if passed, will compel judges to treat Rwanda as a safe third country and proposes giving UK ministers powers to disregard sections of international and British human rights legislation. SOUNDBITE
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says he will not allow the European Court of Human Rights to block the government's planned policy of deporting migrants to Rwanda. Speaking after the UK Supreme Court ruled the policy unlawful, he says he will introduce "emergency legislation" to designate Rwanda a safe country. "If the (European Court of Human Rights) chooses to intervene against the express wishes of parliament, I am prepared to do what is necessary to get the flights off" he says. SOUNDBITE
Police guard the street where a 17-year-old youth arrested over a mass stabbing in the north of England is reported to have lived. The attack in Southport on Monday targeted a Taylor Swift themed dance and yoga class for children on their summer holiday from school. Three children were killed, with five children and two adults still in a critical condition. IMAGES
New UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he is "not prepared to continue" with the Rwanda deportation plan of his Conservative predecessors. Speaking the day after his Labour Party secured a landslide election victory, Starmer says the plan "was never a deterrent, almost the opposite." SOUNDBITE