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The UK Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a controversial government plan to send migrants to Rwanda and upheld a lower court ruling that it was unlawful, in a major setback for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
A five-judge panel at the UK’s highest court unanimously sided with Court of Appeal judges that the policy was incompatible with Britain’s obligations under international treaties.
“We conclude that the Court of Appeal… was entitled to find that there are substantial grounds for believing that the removal of the claimants to Rwanda would expose them to a real risk of ill-treatment,” they concluded.
The judges agreed with the lower court’s June verdict that Rwanda risked forcibly returning asylum seekers and refugees to a country where they could face persecution, in a move known as refoulment.
“Having been taken through the evidence we agree with their conclusion,” they added in their 56-page ruling.
Sunak’s ruling Conservatives have insisted the Rwanda scheme is crucial to reduce “illegal” immigration across the Channel on small boats — an issue set to feature prominently in the next general election.
But the ruling scuppers a saga that began in April last year when Britain signed a deal with Rwanda to send undocumented migrants to interim centres there, and leaves the UK leader’s immigration agenda in tatters.
It is also set to widen rifts in the ruling Tory party between right-wing lawmakers and moderates.
Sunak said the ruling was “not the outcome we wanted” and the government “will now consider next steps” while ministers in Kigali “take issue” with the ruling that Rwanda was not a safe third country.
Hardliner Suella Braverman launched a scathing attack on Sunak Tuesday, the day after she was fired as interior minister, accusing him of “betrayal” and “magical thinking” over the policy.
She wants Britain to leave or disregard the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and “any other obligations which inhibit our ability to remove those with no right to be in the UK”.
The Migration and Economic Development Partnership envisages sending to Rwanda anyone who has made what the government calls “dangerous or illegal journeys, such as by small boat or hidden lorries” to the UK.
The Supreme Court ruling forces the government back to the drawing board to try to drive down asylum seeker numbers, with speculation it may try to strike deals with other countries.
It is also expected to renew demands from right-wingers that Britain withdraw from the ECHR — a drastic idea that Sunak has so far refused to back.
In her excoriating letter Braverman, who has called sending asylum seekers to Rwanda her “dream” and “obsession”, accused the prime minister of having “no appetite for doing what is necessary” on immigration.
She is widely believed to covet the Tory leadership and her hardline stance on the issue is seen as red meat to the party’s grassroots.
But Sunak’s surprise appointment of ex-prime minister David Cameron as foreign secretary and the switch of James Cleverly to the interior ministry suggests he is halting his party’s post-Brexit lurch to the right.
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