Judges at London’s High Court will rule on Monday whether the British government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda is legal, as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stakes his future on stopping a record number of migrant arrivals in small boats.
Under a deal struck in April under the then Boris Johnson government, the UK plans to send tens of thousands of illegal migrants to Rwanda.
The first planned deportation flight was blocked in June by a last-minute injunction from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and the lawfulness of the deportation was subsequently challenged by a judicial review at London’s High Court.
A victory for the UK government on Monday will not mean that flights can take off straight away because there may be a further appeal in the British courts as the ECHR injunction imposed during the summer prevents any immediate deportations until the conclusion of legal action in the UK.
In one of his first major policy announcements after taking office, UK PM Rishi Sunak said he will end illegal immigration and said he wanted to restart the flights to Rwanda despite opposition from lawmakers in all the main political parties, the United Nations and even King Charles.
Lawyers acting for asylum seekers from countries including Syria, Sudan, and Iraq, as well as charities and Border Force staff told the High Court in hearings this year that the government’s Rwanda policy was inhumane and does not comply with human rights conventions.
They said that Rwanda, whose own human rights record is under scrutiny, does not have the capacity to process the claims, and there is a risk some migrants could be returned to countries from which they had fled, citing concern raised by government officials themselves.
(Reuters)
