Andy Drozdziak
Catholic justice groups have called for Government plans to send migrants to Rwanda to be totally abandoned after a Court of Appeal ruled that the Home Office’s ‘inhuman’ plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda are unlawful.
Campaigners and asylum seekers won a Court of Appeal challenge over the Government’s planned Rwanda deportation scheme on Thursday 29th June.
Welcoming the judgment, Catholic justice charity Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) UK renewed calls for the Government to end plans to send migrants to Rwanda.
Sarah Teather, JRS UK’s director, said: “Plans to forcibly send men, women and children seeking sanctuary here to Rwanda are inhuman. They are also completely impractical. They are destructive, and mean slamming the door shut on refugees, denying our duty to offer refugees sanctuary.
“We welcome this judgment, as we continue to resist this cruel policy in solidarity with refugees.”
In December 2022, two judges at the High Court dismissed a series of legal bids against the plans, finding the Rwanda proposals were consistent with the Government’s legal obligations.
However, lawyers for some individual asylum seekers and the charity Asylum Aid brought the successful challenge against their decision at the Court of Appeal.
Three judges overturned a High Court ruling that previously said the east African nation could be considered a “safe third country”.
The Court of appeal ruled that the Rwanda scheme was illegal, on the basis that it did not ensure that asylum claims would be fairly processed, and therefore also did not ensure that people would be protected from removal into danger.
Aisha Dodwell, the head of campaigns for CAFOD, criticised the government for its ‘shameful policy.’
“The government’s plans to send people seeking safety to Rwanda are not only immoral, but have now proven to be unlawful. It is time for the government to look again at its shameful policy and its treatment of migrants and refugees,” she told the Universe, adding a call for the ‘dignity’ of migrants to be respected.
“As Pope Francis has made clear, the world needs to show maximum respect for the dignity of each migrant by building bridges, not walls, as well as providing routes for safe and regular migration,” she said.
In the judgment, Sir Geoffrey Vos said: “It falls to this court to consider the ‘safety of Rwanda issues’ afresh. In deciding those issues, special regard should be paid by the court to the views of the UNHCR (the UN refugee agency) on the grounds of its special expertise and the fact that the subject matter is within its remit.”
He added there were “substantial grounds” to think that asylum seekers sent to Rwanda faced “real risks” of torture or inhuman treatment, or that their claims for asylum would not be properly determined.
Campaigners have joined CAFOD and JRS UK in calling on Home Secretary Suella Braverman to abandon plans to send migrants to Rwanda.
Yasmine Ahmed, UK director of Human Rights Watch, said: “This verdict is some rare good news in an otherwise bleak landscape for human rights in the UK.
“The Home Secretary should now abandon this unworkable and unethical fever dream of a policy and focus her efforts on fixing our broken and neglected migration system.”
The Prime Minister said he ‘fundamentally disagree(s) with’ the ruling, adding that he would ‘seek permission to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court.’
The Rwandan Government said it took “issue” with the Court of Appeal’s ruling as it described the east African nation as “one of the safest countries in the world”.
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