Home Secretary signs new Rwanda treaty

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Home Secretary, James Cleverly, has signed a new treaty with Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Vincent Biruta, after the UK Supreme Court ruled against the policy to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Whilst the Rwanda scheme - which was put in place to send asylum seekers to Rwanda as part of the government’s immigration policy - was originally introduced in 2022 by former Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, asylum seekers are yet to be sent to the country.  The policy was recently scrapped by the Supreme Court who deemed that it violated human rights and were concerned that the Rwandan government may not abide by the international law of non-refoulement which prohibits a country that has received asylum seekers from sending them back to a country in which they could be at risk of serious harm.

The new treaty addresses the concerns of the Supreme Court and is part of the government's plan to ‘stop the boats’ of migrants arriving to the UK from France illegally. Reducing immigration is one of Rishi Sunak’s top priorities as Prime Minister. With the net level of immigration reaching a record high last year, Sunak is facing extreme pressure from his party to take a stand against immigration. The new treaty addresses the issue of refoulement: the Rwandan government has agreed not to send asylum seekers to a third country in which they could face prosecution unless there are any problems which could include committing a crime and getting a prison sentence. Furthermore, a new appeals process will be put into place within Rwanda’s court system, which will handle any necessary deportation cases. The process will be overseen by Rwandan, British and Commonwealth judges.

This new policy has sparked a lot of tension within the government with Immigration Officer, Robert Jenrick, quitting over the proposal. In an emergency press conference on December 7, Sunak  claimed that Rwanda is a safe country for asylum seekers.

Whilst no specific timeframe has been declared, Cleverly has expressed hopes to begin sending asylum seekers to Rwanda before next year’s general election.  Labour leader, Keir Starmer, recently mocked the new treaty stating that: “this treaty’s got more holes than Swiss cheese”, and called the treaty a “gimmick” which would be abandoned if Labour were to win the next general election.