United Kingdom - December 2023

The government has asked the Parliament to declare via a majority vote that Rwanda is safe for asylum seekers, introducing a new Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) bill. The move follows a Supreme Court ruling on 15 November 2023 which found that the safety of asylum seekers deported to Rwanda could not be guaranteed and ruled the planned asylum scheme to be unlawful. In parallel, the government has updated a 2022 bilateral agreement between the UK and Rwanda, which made plans for asylum seekers arriving in the UK to have their asylum claims processed in Rwanda and be relocated accordingly, without recourse to return to the UK. The updates to the agreement seek to respond to the risks raised in legal challenges to the scheme, according to Home Secretary James Cleverly, establishing a new appeal body to hear individual cases and an independent committee to monitor Rwanda’s asylum system and minimize the risk of asylum seekers being returned to their home countries.

Sources: BBC (1), BBC (2), BBC (3), BBC (4), Al Jazeera, UK Government, The Migration Observatory, European Council on Refugees and Exiles, The Conversation, Home Office