Prime
UK judges to hear government appeal over plan to deport migrants to Rwanda
Asylum seekers from Libya arrive in Rwanda in December 2020. Judges in London on Monday ruled that the UK government's controversial plan to deport migrants to Rwanda was lawful. PHOTO | FILE | NMG
What you need to know:
- The hearing comes as the UK gears up for an election expected to take place next year, with migration set to be a major issue on the doorstep.
UK Supreme Court judges will on Monday hear the government's appeal against a ruling that blocked its plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, a key plank of a pledge to cut migrant numbers.
The hearing comes as the UK gears up for an election expected to take place next year, with migration set to be a major issue on the doorstep.
Three Court of Appeal judges in June ruled that Rwanda could not be considered a safe third country, after a challenge to the policy by 10 migrants and a charity supporting asylum seekers.
The issue is an important one for Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak whose promise to "stop the boats" was one of five pre-election pledges he announced in January.
His government has also passed legislation blocking asylum applications from anyone arriving by small boat.
More than 100,000 migrants have crossed the Channel in small boats from France to southeast England since Britain began publicly recording the arrivals in 2018.
Some 24,000 migrants have made the crossing in flimsy and unsuitable craft so far this year with arrivals spiking during the summer months when sea conditions are calmer.
Tackling asylum claims has become a political headache for Sunak's government in London, which promised to "take back control" of the country's borders after the UK left the European Union.
'Real risk'
Former prime minister Boris Johnson brought in the contentious deportation proposal last year to try stem the record number of arrivals.
But rights groups and charities protested the deportation plan, and the first removal flights were successfully blocked by legal action.
Two High Court judges dismissed claims about the legality of the scheme in December 2022.
That prompted the 10 asylum seekers -- from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, Sudan and Albania, plus the charity Asylum Aid -- to appeal.
At the appeal court, the judges agreed the UK government could not guarantee that asylum seekers sent to Rwanda would not be deported to the country from which they were fleeing.
"The deficiencies in the asylum system in Rwanda are such that there are substantial grounds for believing that there is a real risk that persons sent to Rwanda will be returned to their home countries, where they faced persecution or other inhumane treatment," the judges said in their ruling in June.
Ministers, however, are now said to be privately confident of winning the case and are reportedly already drawing up plans to remove over 4,000 migrants before the election, The Times daily said.
The Home Office is understood to be aiming for February 2024 for the first deportation flight.
"We're hoping we can start the flights early in the year when the numbers are lower. That way you can send a signal to the smugglers that there'll be a high chance of you getting removed," the newspaper quoted a government source as saying.
Britain's main opposition Labour Party, leading in the polls ahead of a general election expected next year, on Sunday it would drop the Rwanda plan if it was voted in.
Party Leader Keir Starmer said his party would not pursue the "hugely expensive" and "wrong" scheme even if the Supreme Court ruled in the government's favour.
