UK: Government must now 'draw a line' under disgraceful Rwanda scheme

‘The Government should make policies which fit with the law, not fit the law around their policies’ – Sacha Deshmukh

In response to the Supreme Court judgment today, Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s Chief Executive, said:

“This judgment is vital to protect people seeking asylum in this county, but the Government must now draw a line under a disgraceful chapter in the UK’s political history.

“The deal with Rwanda – a country with a track record of serious human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, torture and the repression of free speech - was massively ill-conceived and cruel.

“It’s now time for the Government and the new Home Secretary to not only abandon the idea of doing a deal with Rwanda, but to scrap the underlying policy of refusing to process people’s asylum claims and the Illegal Migration Act that has entrenched that dismal policy.

“This policy has made complete chaos of the UK’s asylum system and this shameful deal has simply exacerbated the mess.

“The only responsible, effective and decent response to this judgement should be to get down to the serious task of fairly and efficiently determining people’s claims.

“The idea that the UK should withdraw from the European Convention to pursue this failed policy is nonsensical and should be immediately binned. The Government should make policies which fit with the law, not fit the law around their policies.”