The British Parliament on Monday night approved the highly controversial draft law to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda who entered the UK illegally.

Members of the House of Lords, the upper house of the British parliament, had repeatedly returned the draft law to the House of Commons with amendments—a process described as “ping-pong” by the press—but finally agreed not to proceed with further amendments, which guarantees that it will come into force.

Britain’s Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said yesterday that his government is “ready” to begin deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda within 10 to 12 weeks.

The Tories are presenting the bill as an anti-irregular immigration measure and would see refugees and migrants, regardless of their origin, deported to Rwanda if they have entered the UK illegally, particularly by boat, crossing the English Channel.

The stakes were also electoral for Mr Sunak, in power for 18 months, as the Conservatives are reportedly heading for a heavy defeat at the next election.

“The flights will take off”, “we are ready”, insisted the prime minister yesterday, admitting that the goal he had set, for the flights to start in the spring, will not be met, but assuring that they will start “in ten to twelve weeks”, with in other words in July, and that there will be several such one-way flights each month.

An agreement between London and Kigali provides for the payment of large sums of money to Rwanda for the reception of immigrants and refugees. The Supreme Court ruled the original bill illegal in November, however the text has since been amended.

The bill designates Rwanda as a safe third country and presents it as one of the most stable on the African continent.

Rwandan President Paul Kagami is often accused of ruling by imposing a climate of terror, stifling dissent and freedom of expression.

The text is very likely to end up before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). But “no foreign court will stop us”, Mr Sunack insisted yesterday, echoing the Tory refrain after the first Rwandan deportations were blocked by European justice.

Non-governmental organizations – Amnesty International, Liberty and Freedom from Torture – called the bill unconstitutional and the UK-Rwanda deal a “violation of international law”, adding that the British Parliament had turned into a “crime scene”.