Rwanda Unlawful, Deems Supreme Court
The breaking news is that the government has been knocked down by the Supreme Court, as their Rwanda deportation policy is ruled unlawful.
The government was planning the Rwanda deportation policy to send asylum seekers to Rwanda so they can seek refugee status there. The policy is supposed to deal with the number of illegal immigrants in the UK and stick to Sunak’s pledge of “stopping the boats”. The Supreme Court said there had not been proper assessments into Rwanda as a country with humanitarian rights issues. Rwanda has naturally contested this statement.
The Supreme Court ruling means this cannot happen now. Suella Braverman in her exit letter stated this has been a possibility for months but there were no plans in place to amend the policy. Sunak announced to the Commons that he will be seeking to renegotiate an international treaty with Rwanda and will change UK law if need be to make the policy legal. The Court did declare it was legal to send asylum seekers to a foreign country.
I am deeply concerned about this issue - firstly, Sunak has no qualms about changing UK legislation to suit this policy. I believe the policy is detrimental to asylum seekers and immigration as a whole, and changing the law will open the floodgates for more racist policies to be legally accepted. Sunak has said that he will not allow a 'foreign court to block flights' - this highlights the tension between the UK and the EU with Brexit and the European Charter of Human Rights that still is legally binding in the UK jurisdiction.
In addition, there are more pressing issues for the government to be focusing on, such as the NHS, the cost of living crisis, and so on, not to mention the crisis in Palestine.
There is a dangerous precedent to be set if Sunak amends the law to get through policies such as this, instead of adjusting the policy.
Whilst legal changes are a part of any healthy democracy, in this instance, I feel it is a mandate for further right-wing policies to be implemented in the future. And with the return of Cameron, one cannot help but feel uneasy about what is to come.
*Header image obtained from Sky News: https://news.sky.com/story/rwanda-supreme-court-has-ruled-on-the-governments-plan-everything-you-need-to-know-13008059 
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