Immigrants to Rwanda: UK Government defeated in supreme Court
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Hello, Rafe Blackburn here, National Worlds Politics Editor, and I'm just coming to you
00:05 shortly after the bombshell Supreme Court ruling that the government's flagship Rwanda
00:10 policy which involved sending asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing and then eventually
00:17 resettlement has been ruled unlawful.
00:20 And they came down against this policy quite strongly.
00:24 The crux of the ruling is that it is unlawful in a variety of, not only UK laws, but international
00:32 treaties to put asylum seekers at risk of being sent back to their home country, which
00:38 is where they fled at fear of death and persecution.
00:42 That is something known as refoulement.
00:45 Now the Home Office said they'd entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Rwandan
00:51 government which meant, although there was no legal obligation, that they would not put
00:58 asylum seekers sent from the UK to Rwanda at risk of being sent back to their home countries.
01:04 However, the Supreme Court said that evidence from the UN's refugee agency showed that in
01:11 a similar agreement between Israel and Rwanda that refugees and asylum seekers were being
01:18 moved to neighbouring countries and were then at risk of being sent back to their home countries.
01:24 So they basically ruled there was a substantial risk that if the UK sends asylum seekers there
01:28 they could break this law.
01:30 So they said without significant changes this would not be ruled lawful.
01:35 And now this is a huge blow for Rishi Sunak.
01:40 This has been the centre of his policy on immigration to stop the boat, as he says,
01:46 and the entire policy has been leading towards this, the idea that with the threat of being
01:51 sent to Rwanda that fewer people, migrants, will try and make illegal crossings to the
01:58 UK and it will bring down the overall numbers.
02:01 The Supreme Court ruling was so strong it puts him in a very difficult place and it's
02:05 quite hard to see potentially how they could resurrect this.
02:08 And now he's also opened himself up to attacks from rivals such as the former Home Secretary
02:13 Suella Braverman, who only yesterday basically penned a letter accusing him of not being
02:17 committed to this policy and bringing immigration down, and also accused him of not having a
02:23 plan B.
02:24 Now that's something we will find out shortly, does Rishi Sunak have a plan B?
02:28 But it's sure to put pressure on him from the right of his party, and particularly Suella
02:35 Braverman who is planning her own leadership contest coming up.
02:38 [pause]
02:39 [pause]
02:40 [pause]
02:40 [BLANK_AUDIO]