Government lawyers will today, Monday, October 8, urge the British chief court to overturn a ruling which announced an illegal plan to expel migrants to Rwanda, as part of Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak’s key policies.
In June, the Court of Appeal in London concluded that the plan to send tens of thousands of migrants about 4,000 miles (approx. 6,400 km) to East Africa was illegal and that Rwanda could not be treated as a trusted and safe third country.
The court had also ruled that those sent to Rwanda would be at risk of being sent home where they would probably face persecution despite having a lawful refugee claim.
This would make the policy illegal under the Britain’s Human Rights Act-HRA, which made the European Convention on Human Rights-ECHR, a part of the British constitution.
This decision has dealt a massive blow to the Conservative Sunak’s promise to prevent thousands of migrants from arriving in small boats on the English south coast.
Over three days this week, the government will contend (at the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court) that the ruling was wrong, while those representing migrants from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam and Sudan are calling for the judges to conclude that the scheme itself aas unlawful.
With a final ruling likely to conclude by the year’s end, the political stakes would have far-reaching and great consequences.
Recall that the government’s first planned Rwanda deportation flight had been set to leave in June last year, but it had been blocked at the last minute by a decree from the European Court of Human Rights until all the UK legal action had been finished.
