Britain’s Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the government’s contentious plan to send some migrants on a one-way trip to Rwanda is illegal, striking a major blow to a key policy of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government that has drawn international attention and criticism.
Five justices on the country’s top court said asylum-seekers would be “at real risk of ill-treatment” because they could be sent back to their home countries once they were in Rwanda.
Britain, under former prime minister Boris Johnson, signed a deal with Rwanda in April 2022 to send some migrants who arrive by boat in the U.K. across the English Channel to the East African country, where their asylum claims would be processed and, if successful, they would stay.
Britain’s government argues that the Rwanda policy will deter people from risking their lives crossing one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, and will break the business model of people-smuggling gangs. Opposition politicians, refugee groups and human rights organizations say the plan is unethical and unworkable.
No one has yet been sent to the country as the plan was challenged in the courts. Reading the unanimous decision, President of the Supreme Court Robert Reed said Rwanda could not be relied on to keep the promises not to mistreat asylum-seekers sent from Britain.
He cited the country’s poor human rights record, including enforced disappearances and torture, and practiced “refoulement” — sending migrants back to home countries where they could be at risk.
“This was not the outcome we wanted, but we have spent the last few months planning for eventualities and we remain completely committed to stopping the boats,” the government said in a statement.
Sunak said later the government was working on a treaty with Rwanda that would address the court’s concerns, “and we will finalize that in light of today’s judgment.” If that fails, he said he was prepared to consider changing U.K. law and leaving international human rights treaties.
Critics, ranging from opposition lawmakers as well as some Conservatives to church leaders and the United Nations refugee agency, have argued the policy was flawed, a waste of money, immoral and simply would not work.
“He was told over and over again that this would happen, that it wouldn’t work, and it was just the latest Tory gimmick,” Opposition Leader Keir Starmer of the Labour Party said in Parliament on Wednesday. “But he bet everything on it. And now he’s totally exposed. The central pillar of his government has crumbled beneath it.”
Rwanda objects to label
The first deportation flight was stopped at the last minute in June 2022, when the European Court of Human Rights intervened. In December, the High Court in London ruled that the Rwanda plan is legal, but that the government must consider the individual circumstances of each case before putting anyone on a plane.
The Court of Appeal in June backed a challenge by asylum-seekers from countries including Syria, Vietnam and Iran.
The government argued at a hearing last month that it had thoroughly assessed the risks and would ensure that Rwanda’s government abides by its agreement to protect migrants’ rights.
Rwanda’s government said through a spokesperson on Wednesday that it took issue with the U.K. Supreme Court ruling indicating it wasn’t a safe third country.
Featured VideoThe British government has postponed its first scheduled flight to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, according to multiple British media reports.
The U.K. receives fewer asylum-seekers than many European nations, including Germany, France and Italy. Thousands of migrants from around the world travel to northern France each year in hopes of crossing the Channel.
More than 27,300 migrants have crossed the Channel this year, with the year’s total on track to be fewer than the 46,000 who made the journey in 2022. The government says that shows its tough approach is working, though others cite factors including the weather.
Controversial minister ousted
The Rwanda policy was championed by former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who was fired by Sunak on Monday over a series of intemperate statements that deviated from the government line. In the weeks before her sacking she described migrants as a “hurricane” headed for Britain, called homelessness a “lifestyle choice” and accused police of being too lenient with pro-Palestinian protesters.
Braverman’s ouster led to a shuffle that saw the surprise return of former British prime minister David Cameron, who’ll now serve as foreign secretary.
Braverman, who posted a fiery letter sent to Sunak on social media after her firing on Tuesday, has called for the U.K. to leave the European Convention on Human Rights and its court if the Rwanda plan is blocked.
The U.K. government has argued that several other European countries are considering similar ideas, with the European Union exploring setting up processing centres on the bloc’s borders to screen people as they arrive.
Italy recently reached a deal with Albania for the Balkan country to temporarily house migrants. Unlike the U.K. plan, however, the journey would not be one-way. Successful asylum-seekers would get to start new lives in Italy, not Albania.