Progressives, don’t cheer Rwanda’s setbacks

The last-minute halting of the first flight to Rwanda is humiliating for Boris Johnson’s government. An urgent interim measure from the European Court of Human Rights prompted a domino effect of domestic court orders that ended with the plane returning to base without passengers.

The ECtHR’s order came down to three factors. First, that evidence from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and others suggested asylum seekers transferred to Rwanda ‘will not have access to fair and efficient procedures for the determination of refugee status’. Second, that the High Court had found ‘serious triable issues’ in the government’s decision to treat Rwanda as a safe third country on the grounds that it was ‘irrational or based on insufficient enquiry’. Third, the lack of ‘any legally enforceable mechanism for the applicant’s return to the United Kingdom in the event of a successful merits challenge’ in the UK courts. Since Rwanda is not a state party to the convention, the ‘risk of treatment contrary to the applicant’s convention rights’ meant the Iraqi national who brought the case could not be removed until the domestic courts had ruled on the merits.