A UK court has upheld the controversial deal with Rwanda for migrants to resettle in Kigali, giving officials in both countries who had defended the pact a breather.
London’s High Court said the deal does not breach the refugee convention or human rights law. However, it ruled that each of the eight individual migrants named in the case, who had arrived in the UK by boat, had been illegally trafficked.
The court asked the Home Secretary to reconsider his case.
He also said that any appeals would be heard in January of next year.
Both countries will now wait at least until the appeal court’s decision to implement their migration agreement. The asylum deal, which seeks to control illegal migration on boats crossing the channel from France, will see asylum seekers immediately transferred to Rwanda, where their documentation will be processed.
While the UK government has always said it is confident the deal is legal, the court’s decision is expected to face appeals by either party, further delaying implementation.
Omar Daair, the British High Commissioner for Rwanda, said East africa on Wednesday of last week that both governments have established the framework to allow the pact to succeed and get off the ground.
The UK has already paid Rwanda £120 million to facilitate the process.
“If society at large is deemed illegal, it would be a more complicated process, but I think what you would see is that the UK government would appeal that ruling depending on exactly what the judges have said are the problems with the process.” said Mr. Said Daair.
legal challenges
Kigali says that immigrants will be entitled to full protection under Rwandan law, equal access to employment and enrollment in health and social care services, as well as the issuance of necessary identification documents.
The deal made public on April 14 this year was delayed due to multiple legal challenges filed by human rights activists concerned about the deal and Rwanda’s suitability as a host country.
They are also opposed, in principle, to the use of ‘outsourcing’ policies and see the agreement as undermining the post-Second World War international protection regime.
The UN refugee agency and other refugee law experts have questioned whether the deal is compatible with the UK’s obligations under refugee and human rights law.
But both Rwanda and the UK remain committed to implementing the agreement and continue to promote it to UN agencies and other countries as an innovative solution to a “broken” international refugee protection regime.
Read: Hope is eternal for the UK-Rwanda immigration deal
They maintain that it will deter crime, exploitation and abuse and support the humane and respectful treatment of refugees.
“If you enter the UK illegally, you should not be able to stay here,” UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told Parliament last week on Tuesday, announcing a new five-point strategy to tackle illegal immigration.
“Instead, you will be detained and promptly returned to your home country or to a safe country where your asylum claim will be considered.”
Sunak said the government would restart flights to Rwanda and announced that Parliament will be asked to set quotas on how many can be admitted on humanitarian grounds.
The first flight to take UK asylum seekers to Rwanda was canceled on June 14 minutes before takeoff following a late intervention by the European Court of Human Rights.
DATA TABLE
The UK and Rwanda agreed to a Migration and Economic Development Partnership in April 2022. It includes a five-year “asylum partnership agreement”, as detailed in a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the UK’s Home Secretary Kingdom and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Rwanda.
The asylum agreement allows the UK to send some people to Rwanda who would otherwise apply for asylum in the UK. Rwanda will consider them for permission to stay or return to their country of origin. They will not be eligible to return to the UK. People who arrived in the UK on May 9, 2022 have priority for relocation.
In return, the UK provides £120m in funding to Rwanda. It will also be responsible for the processing and integration costs of each relocated person. Ministers expect these to be similar to UK asylum processing costs. The UK has also committed to resettle an unspecified number of vulnerable refugees currently in Rwanda.
Individuals facing relocation to Rwanda may present individual challenges to the application of the policy to their cases.
