• The International Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that United Kingdom’s PM plan to send Asylum Seekers to Rwanda is ‘unlawful’
• PM Rishi Sunak remains ‘completely committed’ to this scheme and is looking into an emergency legislation to evade the international rule.
In 14 April 2022, a five-year trial was announced by ex-PM Boris Johnson who planned to send asylum seekers to Rwanda to claim asylum there.
It was argued that this would stop individuals’ dangerous crossing on the English Channel and reduce asylum pressures and extensive waiting times in the United Kingdom.
However, last week the High Court in the UK and International Supreme Court has ruled that this plan is ‘unlawful’ and that sending asylum seekers to Rwanda causes “a serious risk to individuals in terms of refoulement (return) to countries where they may face persecution or death”
The courts’ mentioned Rwanda’s poor human rights record and its past treatment of refugees as a further hindrance to the legality of this scheme.
The UK is a signatory for UN Refugee convention and European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), where the former allows for individual’s choice in where they apply for asylum, and the latter prohibits torture and inhuman treatment. Both of these treaties are being breached.
In response, Rishi Sunak claimed the government is currently forming a new legislation that will enable parliament to ‘confirm’ that ‘Rwanda is safe’ and end a ‘merry-go-round’ of legal challenges.
The UK Prime Minister claims they will create an international treaty with Rwanda that will guarantee: “those who are relocated from the UK to Rwanda will be protected against removal from Rwanda and it will make clear that we will bring back anyone if ordered to do so by a court”.
Within these discussions there is a complete lack of humanity and compassion for asylum seekers. The IRC terms asylum seekers as “people fleeing from dangerous circumstances in their country of origin and looking to claim international protection”. They are often traumatised and abused individuals who are looking for somewhere safe to live.
The top 5 countries seeking asylum within the UK in 2021 were:
1. Iran
2. Iraq
3. Eritrea
4. Albania
5. Afghanistan
In a lot of these countries, particularly Iraq and Afghanistan, Britain played a large role in exacerbating and facilitating the conflict all in the name of protecting “human rights”. Britain’s involvement has been deemed a military and political disaster. Despite their significant role in the conflict, Britain is now outsourcing their asylum obligations onto other countries.
This plan not only means UK shrugs off their responsibility for these asylum seekers but it will dismantle systems in place that ensure individual’s human rights are met. Ironically, ‘human rights’ are now being violated by the very country that invaded other countries to protect them.
Civil Societies have been vocal about how this plan is “cruel and immoral”. Enver Solomon CEO of the Refugee Council said “The Illegal Migration Act is unfair, unworkable, and expensive. It’s causing huge distress and anxiety for those we support with rising levels of acute mental health problems for already traumatised men, women and children”
Despite the International criticism, the immigration Minister Robert Jenrick has said it was “absolutely critical that flights go off to Rwanda in the spring” and even hinted that he would be prepared to leave the ECHR to enable deportations in Rwanda.
