Darfur follow-ups
Home Secretary James Cleverley will sign a new treaty with Rwanda on Tuesday over its asylum plan after the UK Supreme Court declared the deportation plan illegal, the Home Office said.
Cleverly is scheduled to arrive in the Rwandan capital Kigali on Tuesday morning and meet with the country’s Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta to sign the treaty.
“Rwanda cares deeply about refugee rights, and I look forward to meeting with its counterparts to sign this agreement and continue to discuss how we work together to address the global challenge of illegal migration,” Cleverly said.
Britain intended to send tens of thousands of asylum seekers who arrived on its shores without permission to Rwanda in an attempt to deter migrants crossing the Channel from Europe in small boats. The plan has been closely watched by other countries considering similar policies.
The UK Supreme Court ruled last month that flights to Rwanda violated international human rights laws set out in domestic legislation.
Since then, Britain has been seeking to renegotiate its agreement with Rwanda to include a binding treaty requiring that asylum seekers Britain sends there not be expelled, one of the court’s main concerns.
The court ruled that the policy in Rwanda was illegal, citing the risk that the deported refugees’ claims would be wrongly assessed or they could be returned to their country of origin to face persecution.
The court said the plan violated international treaties and protocols, including the European Convention on Human Rights, the United Nations Refugee Convention, and the Convention against Torture.
