The Supreme Court has said that the government’s Rwanda plan to deport asylum seekers is unlawful.
There was a “unanimous” judgement from the court’s justices as there is a “real risk” of the asylum seekers being returned back to their own countries which breaches international law.
Lord Reed said on Wednesday that there are “serious and systematic defects in Rwanda’s procedures and institutions for processing asylum claims.”
He said that these issues have led to “concerns about the asylum process itself, such as the lack of legal representation, the risk that judges and lawyers will not act independently of the government in politically sensitive cases, and a completely untested right of appeal to the High Court.”
Lord Reed said there is a “surprisingly high rate of rejection of asylum claims from certain countries in known conflict zones.”
Lord Reed then pointed out, there is an “apparent inadequacy of the Rwandan government’s understanding of the requirements of the Refugee Convention.”
He added, “The Supreme Court accepts that the Rwandan government entered into the [deal with the UK] in good faith, that it has incentives to ensure that it is adhered to, and that monitoring arrangements provide a further safeguard.
“Nevertheless, the evidence shows that there are substantial grounds for believing that there is a real risk that asylum claims will not be determined properly, and that asylum seekers will therefore be at risk of being returned directly or indirectly to their country of origin.
“The changes and capacity-building needed to eliminate that risk may be delivered in the future, but they were not shown to be in place when the lawfulness of the Rwanda policy had to be considered in these proceedings.”
The Prime Minister said this was “not the outcome we wanted,” and he insisted they remain “completely committed to stopping the boats” and the government will now “consider next steps.”
Rishi Sunak added, “We have spent the last few months planning for all eventualities and we remain completely committed to stopping the boats.”
Sunak continued, “Crucially, the Supreme Court – like the Court of Appeal and the High Court before it – has confirmed that the principle of sending illegal migrants to a safe third country for processing is lawful. This confirms the government’s clear view from the outset.
“Illegal migration destroys lives and costs British taxpayers millions of pounds a year. We need to end it and we will do whatever it takes to do so.
“Because when people know that if they come here illegally, they won’t get to stay then they will stop coming altogether, and we will stop the boats.”
Bruno Brauer told LondonLovesBusiness.com, “There is no threat anymore, Rwanda got killed by the Supreme Court.
“Now they’ll come en masse, also 1 or 2 million Palestinians, they are apparently loved in the UK and nobody can say that they are not under threat at home.”
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