Rwanda deportation plan ‘dead and buried’

Wilson Solicitors welcomes the new UK Government’s decision to scrap the plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda to have their asylum claims processed there.

The firm represented two of the lead claimants (ASM and RM) whose challenges to the policy went to the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in 2023. The firm also represented a number of individuals selected for removal on the first removal flight in June 2022. Most recently, the firm represented individuals detained in late April and early May 2024 for removal following the passing in to law of the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024, all of whom were subsequently released on bail.

The scrapping of the Rwanda plan is the culmination of more than two years’ work by dedicated solicitors, barristers, NGOs and other community groups. The firm pays tribute in particular to UNCHR and their pro bono legal team, whose detailed evidence proved decisive in establishing that Rwanda is not a safe country to send asylum seekers to; and to Asylum Aid who did so much to co-ordinate and collaborate in the strategic legal work in both rounds of litigation.

The firm represents a significant number of individuals who remain in the limbo of the asylum inadmissibility process. There are reportedly more than 50,000 people in this position. We hope that the new government will quickly take them out of this process and put the necessary resources in to processing their asylum claims in the UK.

Unfortunately, as explained in the firm’s recent response to the Civil Legal Aid Review, due to the long-term failure to increase pay for immigration controlled work (the firm makes a loss on any such case it takes on) we are not in a position to increase our capacity for this work. Unless urgent steps are taken to put this work on a more sustainable footing, many of the 50,000 people currently in limbo will have to navigate the asylum process without a legal representative.

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