Cleared for Take-off

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The UK’s High Court ruled this week that the government’s controversial immigration plan to deport potential asylum-seekers to Rwanda was lawful, a verdict that came just months after the policy’s introduction, NPR reported.

The court found that the immigration plan did not violate the UK’s legal obligations either under domestic laws or the United Nations Refugee Convention.

But it warned that the country’s interior minister must carefully assess the circumstances of individual asylum seekers if their applications are to be tried in future in Rwanda rather than the UK.

The ruling Conservative government approved the plan earlier this year in an effort to address the growing number of migrants arriving in Britain on small boats or trucks from France.

The UK’s Office of National Statistics has estimated that over 45,000 migrants have arrived in small boats crossing the English Channel from France this year, compared with fewer than 30,000 in 2021.

The collaboration with Rwanda, in which Britain’s interior ministry would pay the African country to handle asylum requests, was allegedly intended to dissuade future arrivals in the UK via such risky routes – which the British government considers “illegal.”

But immigration lawyers and human rights groups challenged the plan, saying that asylum seekers could face possible rights violations at the hands of Rwandan authorities.