LONDON

Lawmakers in the UK on Monday voted against amendments to the Rwanda bill passed by Lords and sent the bill back to peers.

MPs rejected the second amendment to the bill, introduced by the House of Lords last week, which would have included an exemption for Afghan nationals and others who had assisted British troops overseas.

Some 305 MPs voted to scrap the amendment while 234 of them voted to keep it, meaning British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's flagship plan will be sent back to the House of Lords for consideration by peers.

Last week, the UK House of Commons rejected a House of Lords' attempt to amend the Safety of Rwanda Bill, which allows illegal arrivals into Britain to be deported to the East African country.

Although his Rwanda plan suffered a series of legal challenges, Sunak seeks to relocate asylum seekers, who arrive in the UK via small boats, to the East African country.

Earlier in the day, ahead of the vote in the Commons, he said that his government is pressing ahead with plans to deport individuals to Rwanda, with the first flights expected to depart in 10 to 12 weeks.

"This is one of the most complex operational endeavors the Home Office has carried out. But we are ready, plans are in place. And these flights will go ... no foreign court will stop us from getting flights off to Rwanda," he said in a live address.

Early in April, Sunak and Rwandan President Paul Kagame met in London and said they were looking forward to the first flights departing in the spring.

The Rwanda plan had been one of the most controversial plans of the government's migration policy as it sparked international criticism and mass protests across the UK.

In January last year, Sunak said that tackling small boat crossings by irregular migrants across the English Channel was among five priorities of his government as more than 45,000 migrants arrived in the UK that way in 2022.