The UK Court Of Appeal has ruled that the government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda is unlawful.
The government believes that sending asylum seekers to the east African country would deter small boat crossings.
However, two of the three judges found that Rwanda was not a “safe country.”
According to The BBC:
A court ruling that the UK government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda is unlawful has been welcomed by the charity that challenged the policy.
Rwanda had not provided sufficient safeguards to prove it is a “safe third country”, senior Court of Appeal judges ruled in a split decision.
Asylum Aid said the decision was a “vindication of the importance of the rule of law and basic fairness”.
It is likely ministers will challenge the ruling in the Supreme Court.
The Rwandan government insisted it was “one of the safest countries in the world” and had been recognised for its “exemplary treatment of refugees”.
Ten people from countries including Syria, Iraq and Albania, who arrived in the UK in small boats, alongside Asylum Aid, argued the policy was unlawful.
The decision on whether Rwanda could be deemed a safe third country for asylum seekers to have their claims processed is partly based on whether there is a risk that people could be forced back to the country from where they were originally fleeing.
The High Court had backed the government’s policy at an earlier hearing but that decision was scrutinised by Appeal Court judges Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett, Sir Geoffrey Vos and Lord Justice Underhill in this latest stage of the process.
While Lord Burnett sided with the UK government, the others concluded that the assurances from the Rwandan government were not “sufficient to ensure that there is no real risk that asylum seekers relocated under the Rwanda policy will be wrongly returned to countries where they face persecution or other inhumane treatment”.
They said that sending asylum seekers to Rwanda will be unlawful “unless and until the deficiencies in [its government’s] asylum processes are corrected”.
The judges stressed their decision “implies no view whatever about the political merits or otherwise of the Rwanda policy” and said that they were unanimous that the Rwandan government’s assurances had been made “in good faith”.
Tessa Gregory, a partner at law firm Leigh Day which represented Asylum Aid in the case, said: “We are delighted that the Court of Appeal has ruled that the Rwanda removals process is unlawful on grounds of safety.”
