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UK plan to send migrants to Rwanda faces new court challenge

Published:Monday | January 16, 2023 | 12:20 PM
Stand Up To Racism campaigners hold banners outside the High Court in London, Monday, December 19, 2022. British judges gave the go-ahead Monday, January 16, 2023, for the Court of Appeal to consider challenges to the British government’s plan to send some asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda. Two High Court judges ruled in December that the controversial policy is legal, rejecting a lawsuit from several asylum-seekers, aid groups and a border officials’ union. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

LONDON (AP) — British judges gave the go-ahead on Monday for the Court of Appeal to consider challenges to the United Kingdom government's plan to send some asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda.

Two High Court judges ruled in December that the controversial policy is legal, rejecting a lawsuit from several asylum-seekers, aid groups and a border officials' union.

The same judges said Monday that the claimants can challenge that decision on issues including whether the plan is “systemically unfair” and whether asylum-seekers would be safe in Rwanda.

No date has been set for the appeal hearing.

The Conservative government struck a deportation agreement with Rwanda last year that is intended to deter migrants from trying to reach the UK on risky journeys across the English Channel.

More than 45,000 people arrived in Britain across the Channel in 2022, and several died in the attempt.

The UK plans to send some migrants who arrive in the country as stowaways or in small boats to Rwanda, where their asylum claims would be processed.

Those granted asylum would stay in the East African country rather than return to Britain.

The UK government argues that the policy will deter criminal gangs that ferry migrants on hazardous journeys across one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

Human rights groups say it is immoral and inhumane to send people more than 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometres) to a country they don't want to live in. They also cite Rwanda's poor human rights record, including allegations of torture and killings of government opponents.

Britain has already paid Rwanda 140 million pounds (US$170 million) under the deal struck in April, but no one has yet been sent to the country.

The UK was forced to cancel the first deportation flight at the last minute in June after the European Court of Human Rights ruled the plan carried “a real risk of irreversible harm.”

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