Today, the 15th of November 2023, the UK Supreme Court rejected plans to send people seeking asylum in the UK to Rwanda. Five supreme court judges unanimously agreed to uphold the appeal against the Rwanda Scheme. There believed that refugees and asylum seekers who would have been sent to Rwanda have a risk of their claims being wrongly assessed, or being returned to their potentially unsafe home country.
The Supreme Court also were not convinced by UK governments political agreement with the Rwandan Government, even if it was “in good faith”, citing issues in a similar deportation agreement between Israel and Rwanda. The Court were doubtful due to perceived lack of commitment on Rwanda’s part to its own international obligations. Despite agreeing not to, there was evidence of moving asylum-seekers from Israel secretly to a neighbouring state.
This comes following the government’s increased focus on tackling illegal channel crossings, including their “small boats week” this past August. The Government posed the Rwanda Scheme as a deterrent to those migrating to the UK illegally to seek asylum.
Former home secretary Suella Braverman, who was sacked by Rishi Sunak’s Conservative party earlier this week, stated:
“If we lose in the supreme court, an outcome that I have consistently argued we must be prepared for, you will have wasted a year and an act of parliament, only to arrive back at square one.”
On the other hand, Enver Solomon, Chief Executive of the Refugee Council had this to say:
“The plan goes against who we are as a country that stands up for those less fortunate than us and for the values of compassion, fairness and humanity. The government should be focusing on creating a functioning asylum system that allows people who seek safety in the UK a fair hearing on our soil and provides safe routes so they don’t have to take dangerous journeys.”
We will bring you any major updates as and when they come on this news tab.
