The government’s plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda is unlawful, the Supreme Court has ruled.

Responding to the judgement, Rishi Sunak said: “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.”

So what was the policy, why did the UK’s top court rule against it – and what happens now?

What was the government’s Rwanda asylum policy?

The “asylum partnership arrangement” between the UK and Rwanda was struck in April 2022 under Boris Johnson’s premiership.

The plan would have seen some people who were seeking asylum in the UK sent to the east African nation to have their claims assessed, rather than going through the process in Britain.

(For more details on the differences between asylum seekers, refugees and migrants, see our 2021 article.)

The Rwandan authorities would then decide whether the person was eligible for asylum, in which case they would be resettled there. There would be no option to return to the UK.

The idea was to deter people from trying to reach the UK by “irregular” routes – for example, by crossing the Channel on small boats.

The thinking went that if it became known among prospective asylum seekers that there was a possibility of being sent to Rwanda, with no chance of resettling in the UK, they would not want to make the journey.

Has anyone been sent to Rwanda to have their asylum claim processed?

Despite the deal with Rwanda being signed over eighteen months ago, no one has actually been sent there to have their claim decided.

The first flight was scheduled to take seven people seeking asylum in the UK to Rwanda in June 2022, but was blocked by a last-minute ruling from the European Court of Human Rights, which said people should not be sent until the lawfulness of the policy had been examined by UK and European courts.