REMOVAL OF ASYLUM SEEKERS TO RWANDA

The Home Office has recently published further details on its plans to offshore people seeking asylum it deems inadmissible, with new country guidance, an equality impact assessment and updated inadmissibility rules.
Journalists and campaigners have been quick to point out that these documents make clear that LGBTQI+ refugees will be deported to Rwanda despite the UK Government’s own updated country guidance conceding there are significant concerns about the safety of the LGBTQI+ people in the country.
Detention Action, Care4Calais and the Public and Commercial Services Union have brought a legal challenge against the Government’s plans. The case challenges the Home Secretary’s failure to disclose the criteria dictating which asylum seekers will be transferred to Rwanda. The claimants further contend that the removal of individuals from the UK to Rwanda under the proposed scheme would be unlawful as the policy penalises asylum seekers on the grounds of their irregular entry, in direct contravention of the Refugee Convention. The Law Society’s president has spoken out to defend the legal profession from attacks by the Government while the legality of the Rwanda plan is tested.
No. 10 has blamed legal challenges for the resumption of Channel crossings following a short break due to bad weather. Meanwhile, there are indications that the first flights for Rwanda will take months to start, not weeks as the timetable ‘slips’, a delay which the Home Secretary is reported to attribute to ‘specialist law firms’. LD4SoS says good for them – keep delaying it until this inhumane and ridiculous idea is abandoned!