By Ben Kerrigan-
The Home Secretary has lost a Court of Appeal challenge over the government’s planned Rwanda deportation scheme, much to the relief of campaigners
The ruling from Lord Burnett, Sir Geoffrey Vos, and Lord Justice Underhill follows a four-day hearing in April against a high court ruling last December that found it was lawful to send some asylum seekers, including small boat arrivals, to Rwanda to have their claims processed rather than dealing with their applications for sanctuary in the UK.
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It is the latest court verdict in a long-running legal battle to get the controversial scheme up and running, after it was announced last April as part of plans to crack down on Channel crossings.
Announcing the ruling, Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett said he does not accept that migrants would be at risk of removal to their home countries from Rwanda – but it is not a safe place for them to housed in while their asylum claims are processed.
The judge concluded: “The result is that the High Court’s decision that Rwanda was a safe third country is reversed, and unless and until the deficiencies in its asylum process are corrected, removal of asylum seekers will be unlawful.”
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The court heard from UNHCR that Rwanda had a record of human rights abuses towards refugees within its borders, including refoulement – forced removal to countries where they are at risk – expulsions and arbitrary detention. The refugee agency said that the Home Office would not be able to guarantee the safety of asylum seekers who were deported to the east African country.
However, Sir James Eadie KC, counsel for the home secretary, Suella Braverman, said she was confident that the government of Rwanda would abide by undertakings given in a memorandum of understanding signed by the two countries.
Ten asylum seekers from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, Sudan and Albania who arrived in the UK via irregular means crossing the Channel in small boats brought the case along with the charity Asylum Aid.
The Rwandan government said it took “issue” with the ruling, calling the nation “one of the safest countries in the world”.
Government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo said: “While this is ultimately a decision for the UK’s judicial system, we do take issue with the ruling that Rwanda is not a safe country for asylum seekers and refugees.
“Rwanda is one of the safest countries in the world and we have been recognised by the UNHCR and other international institutions for our exemplary treatment of refugees.”
She said her government was “still committed” to making the partnership work, adding: “The broken global migration system is failing to protect the vulnerable, and empowering criminal smuggling gangs at an immeasurable human cost.
“When the migrants do arrive, we will welcome them and provide them with the support they’ll need to build new lives in Rwanda.”
Court ‘took no view on political merits of policy’
Lord Burnett said the court reached its conclusion on the law and took “no view whatsoever” about the political merits of the policy.
The judge, who heard the appeal with Sir Geoffrey Vos and Lord Justice Underhill, said the court ruled by a majority and he had agreed with a previous ruling saying the scheme was lawful – but the two others did not.
He said the court is “unanimous in accepting that the assurances given by the Rwandan government were made in good faith” but “the majority believes that the evidence does not establish that the necessary changes had by then been reliably effected or would have been at the time of the proposed removals”.
As a result, the court decided sending anyone to Rwanda would constitute a breach of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, “with which Parliament has required that the government must comply.”
The judgement was welcomed by Green MP Caroline Lucas who tweeted: “Excellent news that Court of Appeal has ruled Braverman’s utterly inhumane, grotesquely immoral & totally unworkable #Rwanda scheme to be illegal too – & in clear breach of human rights law. Time for an asylum policy which treats people with respect & dignity.”
But Tory MP Simon Clark said it is a “deeply disappointing ruling in the face of the clear will of parliament” and he expects the Home Office to lodge “an immediate appeal to the Supreme Court”.
The government wants to send tens of thousands of migrants more than 4,000 miles away to Rwanda as part of a £120m deal agreed with the government in Kigali last year.
The policy was introduced under Boris Johnson but has been pushed forward by Rishi Sunak as part of their plans to tackle small boat crossings in the Channel.
The first flight was stopped at the eleventh hour in June last year after an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
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