15 June 2022

The first scheduled flight for the removal of asylum seekers to Rwanda was cancelled yesterday evening after an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (‘ECHR’) triggered a series of further appeals in the ECHR and courts of London.

What is the Rwanda agreement?
The UK and Rwanda signed the Memorandum of Understanding for the provision of an “asylum partnership arrangement” on 14 April 2022. The aim of the Migration and Economic Development Partnership with Rwanda (MEDP) is to enable the UK government to send asylum seekers to Rwanda to process their asylum applications. Individuals who are relocated to Rwanda would not normally be allowed to return to the UK.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the agreement as an “innovative approach driven by our shared humanitarian impulse and made possible by Brexit freedoms”. Home Secretary Priti Patel said the agreement is designed to put a stop to “people smugglers” and “serious organised criminals who profit from human misery” and would act as a deterrent to asylum seekers using dangerous methods to enter the UK, such as crossing the Channel in small boats.

There has been widespread condemnation of the policy, from the archbishops of Canterbury and York (alongside 23 bishops), through to non-profit organisations and opposition MPs. Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described the plan as “unworkable, shameful and desperate” while Prince Charles has privately criticised the policy as “appalling”. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (‘UNHCR’) said it does not consider MEDP to comply with the UK’s obligations under international law.

Legal challenges to the Rwanda policy
The policy has been the subject to intense litigation. On Friday 10 June, the High Court refused to grant an interim injunction to halt the first scheduled flight to Rwanda. Justice Jonathan Swift held that there was “material public interest” in following through with the policy as the focus is to deter people smugglers who benefit from the trafficking of refugees.

On Monday 13 June, the case was appealed to the Court of Appeal where three judges also refused to grant an interim injunction. Lord Justice Rabinder Singh said that Justice Jonathan Swift had not “err[ed] in his approach” and “reached conclusions he was entitled to reach”.

However, a series of last-minute appeals to the European Court of Human Rights (‘ECHR’) and Court of Appeal successfully halted the flight from taking off on Tuesday 14 June.

Speaking of the ECHR’s intervention, James Wilson, deputy director of Detention Action said: “The ECHR rarely intervenes in the legal matters of member countries. That it has done so now shows how potentially dangerous the government’s Rwanda removals policy is.”

In response, Priti Patel said: “We will not be deterred from doing the right thing and delivering our plans to control our nation’s borders.” She confirmed that the Home Office legal team is reviewing the courts’ decisions and preparing for the next flight to Rwanda.

In July, a judicial review case examining the policy will be heard in the High Court.