The act seeks to deter unlawful migration, particularly by unsafe and illegal routes, by allowing some migrants to be sent to the Republic of Rwanda.

[12] Prime Minister Rishi Sunak subsequently stated that he would withdraw the UK from the ECHR if there were further challenges to stop deportations to Rwanda after the act was passed.

[1] Section 1(5) defines the meaning of declaring that Rwanda is a safe country: namely, that removing someone to there is in compliance with all relevant international law.

Where the question of the safeness of Rwanda arises in any such proceedings, courts and tribunals are not required to take account of any relevant ECHR case law, but are not prevented from doing so.

[1] The explanatory memorandum which is attached to the act states that the purpose of section 3 is "to make clear that the courts and tribunals should defer to Parliament’s sovereign view that Rwanda is safe country as defined, and are under no obligation that could conflict with this".

A court or tribunal is not to grant an injunction suspending the person's removal while the challenge proceeds, unless there is a "real, imminent and foreseeable risk of serious and irreversible harm", and it is not allowed to entertain the argument that Rwanda is unsafe for that person because of the risk of being sent to another country to face possible persecution in breach of international law ("refoulement").

[1] Section 5 provides that where the European Court of Human Rights makes urgent orders called "interim measures" in proceedings concerning the removal of a person to Rwanda under the Immigration Acts, a minister can decide whether to comply.

[1] The bill for the act was announced by James Cleverly on 6 December 2023 as emergency legislation, and was given a first reading in the House of Commons the next day.

[16] The One Nation grouping of Conservatives had recommended its members to vote for the act, and its chairman Damian Green said later "if the government sticks to its guns then it can probably get this legislation through intact".

[17] Mark Francois, chairman of the European Research Group, was among the Conservatives who abstained, and commented "Our objection was that we don't believe as it's currently drafted the act is firm enough to ensure that flights will take off to Rwanda.

Eleven Conservative MPs voted against the bill, including former Home Secretary Suella Braverman and former immigration minister Robert Jenrick.

[18] The two deputy chairmen of the Conservative Party, Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith, both resigned their positions in order to support amendments designed to "toughen up" the act.

On 6 December 2023, Robert Jenrick resigned as immigration minister over "strong disagreements" with the government's response to problems with the Rwanda plan, stating that the act "does not go far enough".

[20] Suella Braverman, dismissed as Home Secretary by Sunak three weeks before, following arguments which included the government policy on immigration, claimed the day after the bill was published that it "won't work".