The Government has been given the go-ahead to bring a Supreme Court challenge over the Rwanda deportation policy.
Ministers had been seeking permission to bring a challenge at the UK’s highest court over a ruling that plans to send asylum seekers to the east African nation are unlawful.
In a majority decision last week, Court of Appeal judges overturned an earlier High Court ruling which found Rwanda could be considered a “safe third country”.
Campaigners welcomed the decision, with charity Asylum Aid which brought the challenge alongside several asylum seekers, describing the ruling at the time as a “vindication of the importance of the rule of law and basic fairness when fundamental rights are at stake”.
But in court orders seen by the PA news agency on Thursday, the Court of Appeal granted permission for the Government to challenge their decision at the Supreme Court.
One of the asylum seekers in the case was also given the green light to challenge part of the ruling.
Sir Geoffrey Vos and Lord Justice Underhill concluded that “deficiencies” in the asylum system in Rwanda mean there is a “real risk” asylum seekers could be returned to their home country and face persecution or other inhumane treatment when they may have a good claim for asylum.
Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett, who heard the appeal with the other two judges in April, disagreed, saying he would dismiss the challenge.
It is a boost to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s hopes of fulfilling his “stop the boats” policy, one of his flagship pledges.
Campaigners welcomed the court’s initial decision, with charity Asylum Aid which brought the challenge alongside several asylum seekers, describing the ruling at the time as a “vindication of the importance of the rule of law and basic fairness when fundamental rights are at stake”.
But Home Secretary Suella Braverman claimed the system was “rigged against the British people” and said she remained “fully committed” to the policy and, despite the ruling, insisted she still had “every confidence” in the plan while stressing that Rwanda was a safe country.
