The Supreme Court has unanimously dismissed the Home Secretary’s appeal, and upheld the Court of Appeal’s conclusion that the Rwanda policy is unlawful. This is because there are substantial grounds for believing that asylum seekers removed to Rwanda under the scheme would face a real risk of ill-treatment by being expelled to their country of origin.
Duncan Lewis represents six of the lead Claimants in this litigation. We welcome the Supreme Court’s decision, which will be a huge source of relief for our clients, many of whom are torture or trafficking survivors and have fled persecution and/or war zones.
Public Law Solicitor Sophie Lucas said, "This is a victory first and foremost for our brave clients, who opposed this policy. It is also a victory for the rule of law. It serves as an important reminder that no one is above the law, including this Government.”
The Home Office developed this policy against a bloody backdrop. At least 11 unarmed asylum seekers in Rwanda were killed by police in 2018 for protesting over their food rations, and a similar arrangement between Israel and Rwanda led to the forced disappearance of at least 15 asylum-seekers. The Home Secretary chose not to properly investigate these incidents and to disregard serious concerns expressed by government officials from the inception of this policy.
The government’s trenchant refusal to abandon the scheme in the face of a wealth of evidence, including from the UNHCR, that there are serious and structural deficiencies in the Rwandan asylum system, has caused needless distress to some of the world’s most vulnerable individuals and wasted significant tax payers’ money.
The UNHCR, who intervened in this case, and have been on the ground in Rwanda since 1993, were unequivocal in their warning against any transfers under the UK-Rwanda arrangement. The UNHCR presented evidence of countless incidents of refoulement, where asylum seekers were expelled to their country of nationality, where they faced inhuman and degrading treatment and/or torture. The UNHCR says this is a product of the acute unfairness and arbitrariness that mark Rwanda’s asylum system.
The government pushed ahead with the scheme regardless, but today the Supreme Court have made clear that no one is above the law. This is an important victory first and foremost for our clients, but also for all those who believe in the rule of law and the protection of basic rights and human decency.
Toufique Hossain, Lewis Kett, Sophie Lucas, Sheroy Zaq, Nicholas Hughes, >, Simon Robinson, Manini Menon and Jennifer Matthews were instructed in this case.
We are grateful to our extraordinary counsel team for their work - Raza Husain KC, Phillippa Kaufmann KC and Anirudh Mathur from Matrix Chambers; Jason Pobjoy, Emmeline Plews, Will Bordell and Rayan Fakhoury from Blackstone Chambers and Christopher Knight from 11KBW.
For any media enquiries please contact sophiel@Duncanlewis.com or via telephone on 020 3114 1197 and toufiqueh@duncanlewis.com or via telephone on 020 3114 1128.
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