Why judges ruled against the Rwanda plan

It’s unusual – not to say uncomfortable – for the most senior judge in England and Wales to be overruled by two of his colleagues. But that’s what happened this morning when the Court of Appeal stopped the government sending migrants to Rwanda.

Lord Burnett of Maldon, the lord chief justice, agreed with the government. He thought that an agreement with Rwanda in 2022 – taken together with assurances from the Rwandan government – meant there was no real risk that asylum-seekers flown from the UK would be sent on to countries where they would face persecution or other inhumane treatment, which would contradict the Human Rights Act.

But his two colleagues in the Court of Appeal, the master of the rolls Sir Geoffrey Vos, and the vice-president of the civil division, Lord Justice Underhill, disagreed. In their view, deficiencies in Rwanda’s asylum system meant there were substantial grounds for thinking that people with a good asylum claim would face precisely that risk.