The High Court has ruled that the British Government’s plan to send some asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda, to have their claims considered there, is lawful and does not breach the Refugee Convention or human rights laws.
The court has however ruled that each of the eight individual migrants in this case, who had arrived by small boats, were treated unlawfully and that the Home Secretary’s officials must reconsider their cases.
The court has ordered a hearing in January to consider whether there the battle will go to the Court of Appeal.
Announcing the court’s decision, Judge Clive Lewis said it was lawful for Britain to make arrangements with the Rwanda government to send asylum seekers to the country for their asylum claims to be determined there.
The (British) government has made arrangements with the government of Rwanda which are intended to ensure that asylum claims of people relocated to Rwanda are properly determined there,” the judge said.
“In those circumstances, the relocation of asylum seekers to Rwanda is consistent with the Refugee Convention and with the statutory and other legal obligations on the government, including the obligation imposed by the Human Rights Act 1998.”
Challenges were brought against the policy announced by then-home secretary Priti Patel in April, which she described as a “world-first agreement” with the east African nation in a bid to deter migrants from crossing the Channel.
The first deportation flight which was due to take off on June 14 was grounded amid a series of challenges against individual removals and the policy as a whole.
