https://arab.news/c3kh9
- Ten asylum-seekers who have been threatened with deportation to Rwanda are involved in the legal challenge
- They hail from conflict zones including Iran, Iraq, and Syria
LONDON: A group of asylum-seekers can bring a legal challenge against the UK’s Home Office for what they claim has been a failure to consider the risks of deporting them to Rwanda, a court of appeal judge ruled on Tuesday.
The vice-president of the court of appeal’s civil division, Lord Justice Underhill, has granted permission for the group to appeal against the British government’s controversial policy on some grounds, The Guardian reported.
Ten asylum-seekers who have been threatened with deportation to Rwanda are involved in the legal challenge. They hail from conflict zones including Iran, Iraq, and Syria.
The judgement considered if the high court had properly examined whether Rwanda was a safe place to send asylum-seekers to, especially considering critical warnings issued by the UN refugee agency UNHCR about the east African country’s poor track record of protecting refugees.
In December, judges found the government’s policy was lawful overall, but overturned the Home Office’s decisions to transfer eight people selected for deportation to Rwanda.