How to solve Rishi’s Rwanda dilemma

Rishi Sunak has promised to respond to the Supreme Court’s judgment that the Rwanda policy is unlawful by agreeing a new treaty with Rwanda and introducing fast-track legislation to parliament. This has been widely ridiculed, as if the proposal were for parliament simply to ignore findings of fact made by the Supreme Court or, worse, for parliament to authorise refugees being sent back to their persecutors. It is extremely unlikely that this is what will be proposed. Much more reasonable proposals are likely – and should be given a fair hearing.

The Supreme Court was able to block the Rwanda plan because the government attempted to implement it without securing express parliamentary authorisation. Ministers gambled on being able to persuade the courts that the plan was lawful because Rwanda was a safe country. Outsourcing asylum claims to Rwandan officials always involved legal risk, which is why Policy Exchange has long argued for offshoring rather than outsourcing. It would be odd for Parliament simply to enact legislation saying that, despite the Supreme Court’s judgment, Rwanda is to be treated as a safe country for the purposes of immigration and asylum law. The