The High Court in London ruled Monday that the controversial immigration law under which the British government seeks to send asylum seekers to Rwanda is legal.
The judges have dismissed the appeals that were filed in April and that initially achieved the first flight to Rwanda scheduled for mid-June. On the other hand, they have ruled in favor of eight asylum seekers on the grounds that the British government had acted wrongly in their individual cases.
In the hearings that have been taking place since then, asylum seekers and their lawyers have been complaining that this procedure is not only unlawful, but also «grossly unfair» as they risk being deported without access to legal advice.
At the same time, they have warned that Rwanda’s conditions for hosting these people are not the best due to its poor human rights record. «They torture and kill those they consider to be their opponents,» the lawyers denounced at a hearing in September.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has also intervened and argued before the court that Rwanda does not have the «minimum» necessary to sustain a «reliable, fair and effective» asylum system.
For its part, the British Home Office has argued that the agreement between the British and Rwandan governments complies with all the guarantees that these people will receive proper treatment once they arrive in the African country, being able to access the various «integration programs» envisaged in a plan valued at some 120 million pounds (137 million euros).
Following the news, the British Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, insisted that the «innovative» migration plan signed with the Rwandan authorities will help the people who have been relocated to «build their new lives there» while at the same time combating the mafias that trade in them.
«We have always maintained that this policy was legal and today the Court has confirmed it,» Braverman said in a statement, in which he stressed his «commitment» to move forward with this plan as soon as possible and to defend it against any judicial attempt to overturn it.
For his part, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, welcomed the decision of the British judiciary, since this immigration initiative is «common sense» and is supported by «the majority of the population».
«I welcome the decision. We have always maintained that our Rwanda policy is lawful and I am pleased that it has been upheld today and that this is just one part of our plan to tackle illegal migration,» he explained, as reported by ‘The Guardian’ newspaper.
«IT WON’T STOP PEOPLE CROSSING THE CHANNEL.»
Meanwhile, the British opposition and migrant rights organizations have urged the government to abandon the initiative because it will not prevent migrants from continuing to arrive across the English Channel.
The plan is «unworkable,» «immoral» and «expensive to the point of extortion,» according to Labour Party Home Affairs spokeswoman Yvette Cooper. «It is a damaging distraction from much-needed action to go after criminal gangs and reform the asylum system,» she added.
Amnesty International UK has called for a «complete abandonment» of the deportations plan and urged Home Secretary Suella Braverman to «stop playing politics with people’s lives and focus on the important work of fixing the disastrously dysfunctional asylum system.»
From Red Cross, Christina Marriott, has stated that «deportation of human beings should not be part of our asylum system.» «It does little to stop people from risking their lives to get to safety,» she warned before calling for safe routes for migration.
Oxfam’s Katy Chakrabortty warned that «just because something is legal doesn’t make it humane.» «We need to reverse this barbaric policy and create safe and legal routes for those fleeing conflict and persecution,» she stressed.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
