Supreme Court allows Rwanda appeal
Craig Dunford KC
Senior Counsel, mediator (MCIArb), arbitrator - admitted to the bars of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, member of the Irish Maritime Law Association and the Commercial Bar Association of Northern Ireland
The Supreme Court has just delivered judgement in the government's appeal against the Court of Appeal's decision that the arrangement between the UK and Rwanda for asylum seekers arriving in the UK to be sent to Rwanda for their claims to refugee status to be determined there is unlawful.
The essence of the decision is whether Rwanda is a safe third country for those claiming refugee status: the Court of Appeal held that it was not, and the Supreme Court held (a) that the Court of Appeal was entitled to reach that view and (b) that the Supreme Court had come to the same view, based largely on the evidence of the UNHCR (which the Divisional Court, hearing the original challenged by way of judicial review, had failed to consider properly).