UK court allows appeal over govt’s plan to send migrants to Rwanda

British judges in the London’s High Court gave the green light on Monday, January 16, for the Court of Appeal to consider challenges to the UK government’s plan to send some asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda.

High Court has thus granted permission to the claimants — a group of asylum seekers — to appeal the previous ruling that the British government’s plan to send migrants to Rwanda was lawful. Two High Court judges ruled in December last year that the controversial policy is legal, rejecting a lawsuit from several asylum-seekers, aid groups and a border officials’ union. The same judges have now said that the claimants can challenge that decision on issues including whether the plan is “systemically unfair” and whether asylum-seekers would be safe in Rwanda. No date has been set for the appeal hearing.

The Home Office, or the UK’s interior ministry, said it would defend its policy, which is a central part of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s plan to tackle the record number of migrants and refugees arriving in small boats. The government says the plan will deter people smugglers, though it has been denounced by rights groups since it was announced in April 2022. The first planned deportation flight was blocked only two months later by a last-minute ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, which imposed an injunction preventing any deportations until the conclusion of legal action in Britain. A lawyer representing charity Asylum Aid, which was also granted permission to appeal against the High Court’s ruling, welcomed the decision.