The Supreme Court has ruled against the Government’s controversial Rwanda plan.
The plan would have seen people who are fleeing war, famine and persecution deported to a country with a record of human rights abuses without having their claim for asylum heard and with no possibility to return to the UK once it is.
The Supreme Court unanimously found that genuine refugees sent to Rwanda could be at risk of being returned to countries from which they have fled - where they could be in danger and that this would be in breach of numerous pieces of international and domestic Law. The justices said that there had not been a proper assessment of whether Rwanda was safe.
So far, the Government has wasted £140m on the unlawful scheme which experts and campaigners have said would be ineffective in stopping dangerous small boat crossings. Crossings have increased since the Government closed safe and official ways for people to claim asylum without first reaching the UK.
Kim Darroch, former UK National Security Advisor and Chairman of Best for Britain said,
“The Rwanda plan was unworkable in every sense, practically, politically and now legally.
“The Prime Minister should reflect carefully on this judgement and resist calls from within his party to leave the ECHR which will do little to stop dangerous Channel crossings but which would undermine the Good Friday Agreement and put the UK alongside Russia and Belarus as the only European countries not party to the convention.
“In an increasingly dangerous world, the UK should be strengthening the rules based international order, not trying to exempt ourselves from it.”
Read the Best for Britain explainer on the Government's Rwanda Plan