The UK’s plan to deport migrants to Rwanda is lawful, the High Court ruled on Monday. The policy, which involves Britain forcibly sending tens of thousands of migrants to Rwanda in an alleged effort to tackle the record number of refugees and asylum seekers arriving in the UK on small boats, has been mired by controversy.
“People who have suffered the horrors of war, torture and human rights abuses should not be faced with the immense trauma of deportation to a future where we cannot guarantee their safety. We believe that sending refugees to Rwanda will breach our country’s obligations under International Treaties and we continue to believe this policy is unlawful,” Care4Calais said after the court ruling.
The ruling came as a relief for newly appointed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who has made a high-stakes political promise to tackle the ‘migration problem’ in Britain. However, the plan has attracted criticism from opposition parties and human rights organisations in the UK, as well as across the international community, including the UN.
“UNHCR remains firmly opposed to arrangements that seek to transfer refugees and asylum seekers to third countries in the absence of sufficient safeguards and standards. Such arrangements simply shift asylum responsibilities, evade international obligations, and are contrary to the letter and spirit of the Refugee Convention,” the UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Gillian Triggs, announced back in April.
