TheCable

The court of appeal is set to hear a case challenging a plan by the British government to transfer asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Clive Lewis and Jonathan Swift, two high court judges, on Monday, gave permission to some of the claimants to appeal part of their judgment delivered in December. 

The court of appeal will be asked to weigh a number of issues, such as whether the high court judges erred in their conclusion that there were adequate safeguards to prevent asylum seekers from being sent to a nation where they were at risk of persecution and whether the program is “systemically unfair.”

On April 14, TheCable reported that the UK government intends to begin sending asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing. 

The UK had said the action became necessary to stop illegal migration and to prevent “vile people smugglers” from turning the ocean into a “watery graveyard”. 

Since the announcement, the plan has elicited varied reactions, with refugee groups describing it as “cruel”, while some non-governmental organisations have disapproved of the funds earmarked for the project. 

Defending the policy, Paul Kagame, president of Rwanda, had said his country’s agreement with the UK is not for “trading of human beings”. 

Kagame added that Rwanda is only trying to help and was approached because of its past experience in handling immigrants. 

To stop the deportation agreement, several asylum seekers, aid groups, and a border official’s union filed lawsuits. 

But in the ruling on December 19, the high court ruled that the country’s controversial arrangement to send asylum seekers to Rwanda was legal.

However, the court added that although the plan was legal, the government failed to consider the circumstances of the eight individuals it tried to deport.

No date has been set for the hearing, and the court of appeal may also be asked to consider other issues which the two high court judges refused permission to appeal against.