The UK Government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda suffered a setback Monday, when the House of Lords voted to require the government to substantiate its claims that Rwanda is a safe country before ratifying the new treaty between the UK and the African nation.

The vote came after the House of Lords International Agreements Committee, which released its report on the UK-Rwanda treaty on an asylum partnership on January 17,  advised that the safeguarding arrangements made within the treaty are not complete and need further attention before it is ratified. The motion stated that, “His Majesty’s Government should not ratify the UK-Rwanda Agreement on an Asylum Partnership until the protections it provides have been fully implemented.” Peers in the House of Lords voted 214 to 171 in favour of the motion and the committee’s recommendations after a hotly-contested debate in the chamber, which lasted over four hours.

The government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda has come up against numerous legal challenges since its inception in April 2022. In November, the Supreme Court ruled that Rwanda was not a safe country and the plan was, therefore, unlawful. Following this ruling, the government signed a new treaty with Rwanda and announced their intention to bring legislation which would declare Rwanda to be a safe country, in the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees issued a report earlier this month, stating that the legislation violated international law and was “incompatible with well-established and binding norms of international refugee law.” Despite this, the bill was passed by the House of Commons on January 17 by 320 votes to 276.

This move by the House of Lords will delay the ratification of the treaty. The Safety of Rwanda Bill will go to the Lords’ chamber next week for its second reading.