LONDON: Two refugees in the UK have instructed their lawyers to challenge British plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, marking the first legal test of the policy.
The two — an Eritrean man who arrived in February, and an Iranian who came in March — both entered on the back of a lorry and believe, with their asylum claims yet to receive a response from the Home Office, that they will be among the first extradited under the plans.
Instalaw will issue judicial review proceedings challenging the legality of the deal that Home Secretary Priti Patel signed with Rwanda this month.
The Times reported that the firm will use the argument that anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller made to block former Prime Minister Theresa May from triggering Article 50, and therefore Brexit, without first putting it to a parliamentary vote.
Stuart Luke, a partner at the firm who was also involved in Miller’s case, will argue that ministers do not have powers to agree an international deal without first seeking parliamentary approval.
The deal was enabled through changes to second legislation brought through in January that adjudged anyone who arrived illegally via another “safe” country, such as France, “inadmissible” to the UK asylum system.
This allowed Patel to sign the deal in Rwanda just hours after consulting the Cabinet and without any legislation, debates or votes in Parliament.
“It’s very interesting that a prime minister can enter into a ‘world-first’ agreement without there being any debate and vote on the details and specifics of the deal in parliament,” Luke told The Times.
He and his team will also argue that the deal fails the Geneva Convention’s rules that asylum seekers are entitled to have their asylum status determined in the country in which they claim it.
Neither man has yet been screened by Home Office officials, a process that usually occurs within days of claiming asylum, after which they are asked where they are from, how they got to the UK, and what the basis of their claim for asylum is.
A further challenge will test the policy’s compliance with data protection laws, questioning how sharing personal data with Rwanda is compliant with GDPR rules. A Home Office source said: “We welcome the challenge and it was always to be expected.”
