UK Government Faces 5 Defeats Over Its Rwandan Asylum Deal

The proposition by the government of the United Kingdom under the current Prime Minister; Rishi Sunak, to assert Rwanda as a country safe for asylum seekers recently suffered a significant push back.

Media reported that the UK government has suffered five defeats in the House of Lords over its deportation bill. The bill seeks to designate Rwanda as a safe destination to transfer asylum seekers to prevent appeals from delaying deportation.

• The UK government’s proposal to designate Rwanda as a safe asylum destination was rejected.
• The House of Lords passed amendments to the deportation bill, challenging Rwanda’s safety status
• In 2023, the UK Supreme Court ruled the asylum agreement with Rwanda illegal.

According to media reports, peers supported amendments to make it simpler for judges to dispute this. They also stated that the treaty governing deportations must be “fully implemented” before aircraft take off. The bill will go through the Lords on Wednesday, when opposing peers may inflict more losses.

Back in March 2023, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke by phone with President Paul Kagame of Rwanda about the heavily debated plan to send migrants to Rwanda. The conversation centered on how both countries could collaborate to disrupt smuggling while addressing humanitarian concerns.

However, since then, there has been a lot of pushback on the idea. The proposition by the UK Prime Minister, who continues to advocate against irregular migration, centers around the rejection of citizenship and asylum applications made by those who enter the UK on small boats. These persons would subsequently be deported and barred from repeating any of those actions or returning.

However, skeptics particularly Conservatives, argue that it would endanger individuals while also undermining judicial independence.

Media reported that “On Monday, the House of Lords passed five amendments to the draft text, which if ratified, would make it harder for the House of Commons to declare Rwanda “safe” and would require the government to comply with domestic and international law. ”

2023 debacle

Back in June 2023, a comprehensive government analysis of a high-stakes commitment to address record numbers of people arriving in tiny boats, showed that the UK’s proposal to transport asylum seekers to Rwanda will cost £169,000 ($215,035) per person.

The cost of deporting each person to Rwanda, according to the government’s economic impact assessment, would include an average payment to Rwanda of 105,000 pounds for hosting each asylum seeker, 22,000 pounds for the flight and escorting, and 18,000 pounds for processing and legal costs.

Fast forward 5 months later and the UK Supreme Court decided that an asylum agreement with Rwanda was illegal, identifying the likelihood that refugees transported to Kigali may be repatriated to the countries from which they fled, which would in turn subject them to even more harsh treatment.

The five Supreme Court justices unanimously agreed that the Court of Appeal had reasonable grounds in determining in June that Rwanda’s safety had not been thoroughly evaluated.

The UK High Court of Appeal ruled that Rwanda is not a safe choice for asylum seekers due to deficiencies in its asylum processes, reversing an earlier decision that pronounced it safe.