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In a new twist to the case, British judges gave the go-ahead for the Court of Appeal to consider challenges to the U.K. government’s plan to send some asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda
In a new twist to the case, British judges gave the go-ahead for the Court of Appeal to consider challenges to the U.K. government’s plan to send some asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda. It is important to note that last month, the same High Court judges said that the policy of deportation didn’t breach Britain’s obligations under the U.N. Refugee Convention or other international agreements, rejecting a lawsuit from several asylum-seekers, aid groups, and a border officials’ union.
The same judges said the parties could challenge that decision on issues including whether the plan was systemically unfair and whether asylum-seekers would be safe in Rwanda. The court order stated that the government must decide if there is anything about each person’s particular circumstances, which meant they should not be sent to Rwanda and had failed to do that for the eight claimants in the case. However, no date has been fixed for an appeal hearing.
The Conservative government of the UK had struck a deportation agreement with Rwanda last year to deter migrants from trying to reach the U.K. on risky journeys across the English Channel. It is estimated that more than 45,000 people arrived in Britain through the Channel in 2022. In the attempt to cross the sea that separates Britain from Africa, several people died on the way.
The U.K. plans to send some migrants who arrived in the country as stowaways or in small boats to Rwanda, where their asylum claims would be processed. Those granted asylum would stay in the East African country rather than return to Britain. This policy, the UK government feels, would deter criminal gangs that ferry migrants on hazardous journeys across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
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This move was resisted by human rights activists and some church groups arguing to send people more than 6,400 kilometers to a country they did not want to live in. They also cited Rwanda’s poor human rights record, including allegations of torture and killings of government opponents. Britain has already paid Rwanda 140 million pounds ($170 million) under the deal struck in April. but no one has yet been sent to the country. The U.K. was forced to cancel the first deportation flight at the last minute. The European Court of Human Rights ruled the plan carried a real risk of irreversible harm.
