UK Home Secretary Braverman to have ‘discretion’ on deportation rulings from EU

The UK government is prepared to give Home Secretary Suella Braverman “discretion” on whether to abide by any rulings from human rights courts that seek to block migrant deportation flights to Rwanda.

Oliver Dowden, who was appointed Deputy Prime Minister on Friday after his predecessor resigned, said Braverman will get the power to overrule so-called Rule 39 interim measures, temporary injunctions by the European Court of Human Rights, that can block deportations.

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“The home secretary will be given a discretion — an ability to look at the circumstances of that order from the European Court of Human Rights,” Dowden said in an interview with Sky News. “I think it’s right that the home secretary should have a discretion so we don’t have the situation when at the very last minute an order is imposed.”

Braverman, writing in a column in the Sunday Telegraph, said a new proposed migration law will allow her to ignore European courts. The proposed power will give government ministers “broad discretion on whether they comply with Rule 39 measures,” she wrote. UK lawmakers are set to debate the bill this week.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is under pressure to act after he made stopping the boats of migrants crossing the English channel from France one of his five priorities in government. Regaining control of the country’s borders was also a key selling point of the cam-paign to leave the European Union, which Sunak backed. About 45,000 people arrived by boat in the UK last year and the number ofcrossings has risen in recent years.

Braverman’s flagship policy involves sending migrants arriving by boat to camps in Rwanda where they can apply for asylum. She had said the flights would deter them from making the journey and reduce their numbers. Earlier this month she said the government was also exploring housing migrants on barges.

Read more: British interior minister Braverman says she is convinced Rwanda is safe for migrants