ENGLAND | Plans to send Asylum seekers to Rwanda Ruled Unlawful by the High Court

LONDON, England, November 15, 2023 - Plans by the British government to send asylum seekers to the East African country of Rwanda is patently unlawful says Britain’s Supreme Court, upholding a similar ruling from that country's  Court of Appeal earlier in the year.

The plan is designed to deter people crossing in small boats across the Channel.

Supreme court president, Lord Reed, said that there were substantial grounds to believe that genuine refugees sent to the country could be at risk of being returned to countries from which they have fled - where they could be subject to inhumane treatment.

In a unanimous decision, the five top justices said the Court of Appeal had been right to conclude in June that there had not been a proper assessment of whether Rwanda was safe.

The judgment does not ban sending migrants to another country - but it leaves the £140m Rwanda scheme in tatters - and it's not clear which other nations are prepared to do a similar deal with the UK.

The government had argued that Rwanda had given clear and trustworthy diplomatic assurances that anyone sent there from the UK would be treated fairly and humanely.

Once in Rwanda, people could claim asylum there, return home, or seek asylum in a third country - not the UK.

But in a key intervention in the case, the UN's refugee agency said Rwanda's asylum system was deeply unfair - and officials could send migrants back to home countries where they had previously been persecuted or tortured.

"The legal test which has to be applied in this case is whether there are substantial grounds for believing that asylum seekers sent to Rwanda would be at real risk of refoulement [this means sending people back to their home countries].

"In the light of the evidence which I have summaries, the Court of Appeal concluded that there were such grounds. We are unanimously of the view that they were entitled to reach that conclusion. Indeed, having been taken through the evidence ourselves, we agree with their conclusion.

"We accept the home secretary's submission that the Rwandan government entered into the agreement in good faith, and that the capacity of the Rwandan system to produce accurate and fair decisions can and will be built up.

"Nevertheless, asking ourselves whether there were substantial grounds for believing that a real risk of refoulement existed at the relevant time, we have concluded that there were.

"The changes needed to eliminate the risk of refoulement may be delivered in the future, but they have not been shown to be in place now.

"The home secretary's appeal is therefore dismissed."

Since being announced in 2022, the plan has been thwarted by legal challenges - the High Court ruled it lawful, before the Court of Appeal overturned the decision.

The five-year trial - announced in April 2022 - would have seen some asylum seekers sent to Rwanda to claim asylum there.

Under the plan, they might have been granted refugee status to stay in Rwanda. If not, they could have applied to settle there on other grounds, or sought asylum in another "safe third country".

No asylum seeker has actually been sent to Rwanda. The first flight was scheduled to go in June 2022, but was cancelled after legal challenges.

The government said the policy would deter people arriving in the UK through "illegal, dangerous or unnecessary methods", such as on small boats which cross the English Channel.

More than 45,700 people used this route to come to the UK in 2022, the highest figure since records began.

SOURCE:  BBC News

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