Rwanda policy delayed further as High Court grants appeal against its legality

The Government’s Rwanda asylum policy faces further delays after the High Court allowed an appeal against its legality.

The High Court ruled in December that sending migrants to Rwanda to claim asylum in the central African state was lawful.

Charities Detention Action, Care4Calais, the PCS union representing Border Force staff and a group of asylum seekers had claimed the policy breached the Refugee Convention and that it was unsafe to send migrants to Rwanda to claim asylum.

On Monday, Lord Justice Lewis and Mr Justice Swift granted permission for the case to go to the court of appeal on four grounds, including the risk of refoulement, which could be a breach of the refugee convention and its legality.

The decision will delay deportation flights for months until the case has been heard in the Court of Appeal. It could eventually go to the Supreme Court, which could add months.

Asylum flights to Rwanda have been halted since June when European human rights judges intervened at the 11th hour to block the deportation of seven migrants.

The European Court of Human Rights granted an urgent injunction to block the flight, just hours after the UK Supreme Court had rejected his plea.

It ruled no flight could leave the UK for Rwanda until three weeks after the conclusion of any domestic UK challenges to the legality of the policy.