Tory 'internal war': UK PM fails to 'appease extreme right' following Supreme Court 'robust' ruling
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00:00 As we heard in that press conference, Rishi Sunak saying he will go back to Parliament
00:04 with legislation that makes it, that ensures guarantees that Rwanda won't deport those
00:11 asylum seekers to their country of origin.
00:14 For more, let's go to The Hague.
00:16 And Barrister Jan Edwards, thank you for joining us here on France 24.
00:22 Thank you.
00:23 Can the UK Prime Minister deliver the guarantees he's promising that when it comes to those
00:29 asylum seekers?
00:31 Well, the problem is that the Prime Minister, he's facing a very robust judgment from the
00:39 Supreme Court that was handed down this morning, a unanimous judgment from the Supreme Court
00:49 that threw out his Rwandan policy in very robust terms.
00:59 This was a judgment that rejected the government's contentions that it would be lawful to return
01:10 or rather to send certain asylum seekers in the UK to Rwanda for their asylum claims to
01:19 be treated there in Rwanda.
01:22 And if they were successful in their asylum claim in Rwanda, they would be permitted to
01:28 stay in Rwanda.
01:30 But the challenges that were brought against the policy and the lawfulness of the policy
01:37 were successful.
01:39 And it's very difficult to see how the government is going to go behind it.
01:46 I didn't hear the entirety of Richie Sunak's press conference a few moments ago, but I
01:54 did catch a couple of sentences where he said that the rule of law is fundamental in the
02:00 UK and that the government takes great pride in respecting the rule of law.
02:08 But to go behind this judgment and politically go to Parliament and drive a cultural policy-
02:16 On that point, in the ruling, the president of the Supreme Court stated that, he kind
02:22 of hinted that they can go back to Parliament and get those guarantees and change the law.
02:28 He said, quote, "The changes needed to eliminate the risk of refoulement," that word that Philip
02:32 Turrell was using, "may be delivered in the future, but they've not been shown to be in
02:36 place now."
02:37 In other words, come back to us with legislation that makes this okay.
02:43 Well, he's going to have to come back at some point in the future and prove that Rwanda
02:51 is indeed a safe place to send asylum seekers.
02:56 And in a very detailed judgment from the Supreme Court, the judges explained how Rwanda simply
03:06 isn't a safe country, that there's a great deal that would have to be done internally
03:11 in Rwanda in order for the guarantees that are required, those guarantees would be present.
03:22 For example, one of the things that really jumped out at me related to the serious defects
03:29 that exist within the Rwandan zone, domestic asylum processes, such as a lack of adequate
03:40 or any legal representation for asylum seekers within the Rwandan process, a lack of independence
03:46 of the judiciary.
03:47 Now, the lack of independence of the Rwandan judiciary has been a feature of the Rwandan
03:53 system as recognized in UK courts going back many, many years now.
03:58 But that's not the picture that Richie Sunak painted in front of the journalists.
04:01 He seemed to imply that Rwanda was a model for other countries in the region.
04:07 Well, that's simply not true, and the Supreme Court disagreed with him in that regard.
04:14 One of the things, another thing that the Supreme Court spent a lot of time considering
04:20 related to a former agreement that Rwanda had entered into with Israel that existed
04:27 between 2013 and 2016, I think, an agreement whereby Rwanda would process asylum seekers
04:37 who had initially sought to claim asylum in Israel.
04:42 And despite lots of guarantees and Rwanda entering into this agreement in good faith,
04:54 apparently, but despite all the guarantees that were contained in the agreement, Rwanda
04:58 very quickly started to refool asylum seekers, principally from Sudan and Eritrea.
05:06 And there was a great deal of evidence that was placed before the judges that Rwanda had
05:11 sent over 100 asylum seekers, originally from Israel, sent to Rwanda, and Rwanda was then
05:20 sending them on to Uganda very quietly, some of whom Uganda then tried to send back to
05:26 either Eritrea or Sudan.
05:29 So Rwanda has entered into this sort of agreement in the past and completely breached those
05:38 agreements.
05:40 And on that question, Jan Edwards, this was a unanimous ruling.
05:45 It doesn't come to as a surprise to those who were warning on day one when the scheme
05:52 was first rolled out that it would be struck down by the courts.
05:59 Rishi Sunak, it can't be a surprise for him.
06:02 Is for him the idea, particularly when he talked about how he understood those within
06:07 his cabinet who called for ignoring what the ruling was, that it's a way of politically
06:14 painting himself as an insurgent?
06:17 Well, it's, as your earlier speaker said, this is Rishi Sunak, it seems to me, and I'm
06:23 not a politician, but this is Rishi Sunak, it seems to me, trying to navigate a middle
06:30 way between the extreme right of his party and the more moderate wing of his party.
06:42 This is, you know, the Conservative Party is permanently in a state of internal war,
06:52 and he's in a difficult situation.
06:55 He's got to appease the extreme right, the supporters of Sweller Braverman, whose policy
07:05 this was essentially.
07:08 And he's trying to show that he can be as tough as she is.
07:14 Jan Edwards, many thanks for joining us from The Hague.
07:18 Want to thank as well Philip Turrell from our International Affairs desk.