The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has alerted that the UK’s recent Rwanda agreement infringes international law, according to a legal analysis published on Monday. This recent assessment is an update to a preceding UNHCR evaluation carried out in June 2022 of the “Legality and Appropriateness of the Transfer of Asylum-Seekers under the UK-Rwanda Arrangement”. The previous analysis concluded that the UK-Rwanda agreement breaches international refugee law, stating that it fails to meet the required standards related to the legality and appropriateness of transferring asylum-seekers.
The issues arose following the signing of the UK-Rwanda Asylum Partnership Treaty in December 2023 and the proposed Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill. In response to a UK Supreme Court ruling in November, which declared the UK government’s plan to deport “illegal” asylum-seekers to Rwanda for processing their asylum claims as unlawful, the UK government introduced the bill, which was later passed by the House of Commons.
The UNHCR’s assessment alleges that the UK-Rwanda partnership conflicts with the fundamental principles of global solidarity and shared responsibility that forms the foundation of the international refugee protection system. It asserts that the agreement is essentially an attempt by the UK to offload its international obligations of protecting refugees and asylum-seekers onto Rwanda.
In its analysis, the UNHCR emphasises that the UK Supreme Court’s judgement, which deemed the Rwanda agreement as unlawful, highlighted the potential risks of asylum-seekers facing refoulement – a practice prohibited under the Refugee Convention of 1951.
Moreover, the UNHCR maintains that the solutions offered by the treaty to the refoulement risks identified by the Supreme Court’s ruling, like proposing to give permanent residency to relocated individuals who choose not to seek asylum in Rwanda or those whose asylum or protection applications are denied, may not adequately address the risks.
The introduction of the Safety of Rwanda Bill by the UK government aimed at declaring Rwanda safe, has been heavily criticised for disapplying sections 2, 3, and 6 to 9 of the UK’s Human Rights Act 1998. In retaliation, the Rwandan government threatened to withdraw from the treaty if the UK doesn’t adhere to international law.
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