Supreme Courts Rwanda Ruling

The UK’s highest court has ruled that the government’s policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda is unlawful due to the risk of “refoulement”. The Court of Appeal had previously ruled that the policy was unlawful due to deficiencies in Rwanda’s asylum system. The UK government challenged this ruling, but the Supreme Court upheld the decision. The ruling could have implications for the UK’s future in the European Convention on Human Rights and other deportation deals.

The policy of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda was first announced by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson in April 2022 as a way to deter refugees from traveling across the Channel to claim asylum in the UK. The government has argued that the deportation scheme is lawful and that everyone sent to Rwanda would have a “safe and effective” refugee status determination procedure. However, critics have argued that Rwanda’s asylum system is “woefully deficient” and marked by “acute unfairness and arbitrariness”.

The Supreme Court’s ruling means that the UK government will need to reconsider the cases of asylum seekers who were at risk of being deported to Rwanda. It remains to be seen what the government’s next steps will be in light of this ruling. We will post more updates as and when they arrive.