UK’s newly handed ‘Safety in Rwanda’ invoice is something however secure: UN officers | EUROtoday

Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, issued a joint assertion calling on the UK Government to rethink its plan to switch asylum seekers to Rwanda.

This association seeks to shift duty for refugee safetyundermining worldwide cooperation, Mr. Grandi added.

“The new legislation marks a further step away from the UK’s long tradition of providing refuge to those in needin breach of the Refugee Convention,” he mentioned. “Protecting refugees requires all countries, not just those neighbouring crisis zones, to uphold their obligations.”

Instead, the UK ought to take sensible measures to handle irregular flows of refugees and migrants, primarily based on worldwide cooperation and respect for worldwide human rights legislation, the UN officers mentioned.

A Ukrainian woman comforts her six-year-old brother as they put together to depart a UNICEF-supported centre in Romania for his or her subsequent vacation spot. (file)

Raises dangers for asylum seekers

The asylum and immigration laws, recognized generally because the Safety of Rwanda invoice, was tabled earlier than Parliament alongside the UK-Rwanda Asylum Partnership Treaty after the UK’s Supreme Court discovered final yr that the proposed switch of asylum seekers to the African nation would breach worldwide and UK legislation.

The court docket’s choice had famous weaknesses in Rwanda’s system for figuring out particular person asylum claims.

But, the invoice and the treaty don’t in observe overcome the safety gaps recognized by the Supreme Court, the UN officers said, including that when enacted, the measures will limit the UK courts from correctly scrutinising elimination selections, leaving asylum seekers with restricted room to attraction even when they face important dangers.

New invoice units ‘a perilous precedent’

Mr. Türk mentioned the invoice infringes on the rule of legislation.

“By shifting responsibility for refugees, reducing the UK’s courts’ ability to scrutinise removal decisions, restricting access to legal remedies in the UK and limiting the scope of domestic and international human rights protections for a specific group of people, this new legislation seriously hinders the rule of law in the UK and sets a perilous precedent globally,” the UN rights chief mentioned.

He mentioned it’s vital to the safety of the human rights and dignity of refugees and migrants looking for safety that each one removals from the UK are carried out after assessing their particular particular person circumstances in strict compliance with worldwide human rights and refugee legislation.

A honest, environment friendly and well-governed migration and asylum system is essential to making sure entry to safety for these in want and enabling the return residence of these with no lawful foundation to stay, the UN officers mentioned.

Acknowledging the challenges offered by the irregular motion of refugees and migrants, usually in harmful circumstances, the UN leaders nonetheless expressed grave concern that the laws would facilitate transfers beneath the UK-Rwanda asylum partnership, with solely restricted consideration of their particular person circumstances or any safety dangers.

They known as on the UK as a substitute to pursue sensible cooperation with international locations alongside the routes that refugees and migrants take, to strengthen safety and supply actual options. This consists of increasing secure and common pathways to safety, they mentioned.

© Unsplash/Sebastian Grochowicz

A airplane about to take off from Heathrow Airport within the United Kingdom.

Progressively restrictive legal guidelines

The UN officers identified that the brand new laws is the third in a sequence of progressively restrictive legal guidelines which have eroded entry to refugee safety within the UK since 2022, together with by way of a ban on entry to asylum or different types of permission to remain within the UK for these arriving irregularly through a 3rd nation.

If applied, the brand new invoice would “pave the way for asylum seekers, including families with children, to be summarily sent to Rwanda to present their asylum claims, with no prospect of return to the UK”, they mentioned.

The new invoice may even drastically restrict the flexibility for asylum seekers to problem or attraction elimination selections, with choice makers and judges required to conclusively deal with Rwanda as a “safe” nation when it comes to defending asylum seekers, no matter any proof on the contrary, now or sooner or later, the UN officers mentioned.

This scenario is much more regarding given the laws expressly authorises the UK Government to ignore any protecting interim cures from the European Court of Human Rights, the UN chiefs warned.