The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, the highest judicial instance in the country, considered this Wednesday illegal the British Government's plan to send asylum seekers who enter the country clandestinely to Rwanda. The British justice thus overthrows one of the major objectives in terms of immigration policy defended by Rishi Sunak's Executive, which organized one of these flights in June.
In a unanimous ruling by five judges, the president of the Supreme Court, Robert Reed, rejected the Government's appeal considering, among other reasons, that, in light of the evidence, there is a risk that asylum seekers sent to Rwanda could be in danger of being deported to their countries of origin, from which they had previously escaped.
The first flight was paralyzed 'in extremis' due to the intervention of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), which responded to a complaint from organisations. At the end of June, a British court determined that the deportation plan approved during Boris Johnson's time in Downing Street was illegal.
With the ruling of the highest judicial instance of the United Kingdom, the magistrates agree with several asylum seekers and non-governmental organizations, which argued at all times the deficiencies of the African country in terms of human rights.
Reed explained that the court's mission in this case was purely legal and did not take into account the current political debate on immigration policy, adding that international laws and treaties on immigration and human rights were evaluated.
The president also emphasized the fundamental legal principle that an asylum seeker should not be returned to his or her country of origin without having "considered his or her claims" about the danger such a return would pose.
This decision represents a severe blow to the immigration policy of the Conservative Executive, since the Rwanda plan was considered by the Tories as central to stopping the increase in boats with migrants crossing the English Channel, which separates England from France.
This program had been defended by the now former British Home Affairs Minister Suella Braverman, who was dismissed by Sunak last Monday following her criticism of the British Police.
