Sunak battles Supreme Court ruling: What next for the UK’s Rwanda plan?

UK announces emergency legislation after Supreme Court rules against government plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda

Hours after the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court ruled that the government’s plan to send asylum seekers to the African country was unlawful, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised to introduce emergency legislation that confirms that Rwanda is a safe country.

The emergency legislation “will provide a guarantee in law that those who are relocated from the UK to Rwanda will be protected against removal from Rwanda.”

It will also “ensure that people cannot further delay flights by bringing systemic challenges in our domestic courts, and stop our policy being repeatedly blocked,” Sunak told reporters on Wednesday.

The announcement came as human rights groups celebrated the Supreme Court decision, stating that asylum seekers would be at “risk of ill-treatment” if sent back to their home countries once in Rwanda.

A joint civil society statement signed by 140 organisations, including prominent campaign groups such as the Runnymede Trust and Liberty, had described the plan as “cruel and immoral”.

“We urge the Government to immediately abandon such plans with Rwanda or with any other country, and instead protect the rights of people who have come to our country in search of sanctuary,” it said.

Maddie Harris, founder of the UK-based Humans for Rights Network – which also signed the statement – said the Supreme Court had made it “abundantly clear that Rwanda causes a serious risk to individuals in terms of refoulement to countries where they may face persecution or death”.

“An emergency law does not eliminate that risk. What the [UK] government is saying is: ‘We don’t care if we send people back to their death,’” she told Al Jazeera.

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Harris said it was unclear how an emergency law could take precedence over a Supreme Court ruling.

“This is an unprecedented announcement and [we will have to see] if this is political posturing or if it allows them the possibility to remove people,” she said.

The court decision on Wednesday dealt a major blow to Sunak, whose promise to crack down on undocumented migration across the English Channel stands largely unfulfilled as he prepares for a general election that must be held at some point before the end of January 2025.

“This was not the outcome we wanted, but we have spent the last few months planning for all eventualities and we remain completely committed to stopping the boats,” he told reporters.