British High Court Permits Illegal Migrants to be Sent From UK to Rwanda

The British High Court has ruled that the government’s plan to send illegal migrants from the UK to Rwanda is lawful.

Lord Justice Lewis elaborated that the Rwanda Deal was "consistent with the refugee convention," emphasizing, however, that people's "particular circumstances" should be taken into consideration before deporting them from the UK.

Initially, the first flight under the Rwanda deal was set to take place on June 14, but just a few minutes before take-off, the flight was cancelled in accordance with the decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The attention of the ECHR to the deal was drawn by the lawyer of an asylum-seeker who was among those to be sent to Rwanda.

The UK’s then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson argued that the ECHR was “helping criminals who exploit asylum seekers."

The senior judge, however, has now ruled that the circumstances of the people who had to be sent in Rwanda in June were not "properly considered" and their cases should be sent to the home secretary again "for her to consider afresh."

The UK is taking measures against illegal migration as the number of migrants who are arriving in the country is on the rise. According to the UK government, the overall number of people arriving in Britain on small boats via the English Channel in the first nine months of 2022 (33,029) exceeded the entire number of people detected arriving in 2021 (28,526).

In early September, documents presented at a High Court hearing in the case were released, showing that a number of British officials had rebuked the deal. These officials reportedly mentioned allegations of extrajudicial killings, recruitment of refugees to undertake armed operations in neighboring countries, along with human rights breaches.

All in all, eight people took their cases to the High Court to challenge the decision to send them to Rwanda.