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What is the UK’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda?
The UK government plans to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda.
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The High Court has ruled the scheme is legal, but the decision is facing further challenges in the courts.
What is the Rwanda asylum plan?
The five-year trial will see some asylum seekers sent to Rwanda on a one-way ticket, to claim asylum there.
They may be granted refugee status to stay in Rwanda. If not, they can apply to settle there on other grounds, or seek asylum in a “safe third country”.
The government says this will deter people arriving in the UK through “illegal, dangerous or unnecessary methods”, such as on small boats which cross the English Channel.
However, the numbers crossing have not fallen since the policy was announced on 14 April. More than 45,000 people used this route to come to the UK in 2022, the highest figure since records began.
Is the Rwanda scheme legal?
Opponents argue that Rwanda is not a safe destination for asylum seekers and that the scheme breaks human rights laws.
But in December the High Court ruled that the plan is legal. It said the Rwanda scheme does not breach the UN’s Refugee Convention.
However, on 16 January, the High Court ruled that the some of the groups who lost the case have the right to appeal against parts of its decision.
That means flights will not be able to take off to Rwanda while the case goes to the Court of Appeal. No date has been set.
How many people could be sent to Rwanda?
The UK government previously said “anyone entering the UK illegally” after 1 January 2022 could be sent, with no limit on numbers.
Rwanda says it can process 1,000 asylum seekers during the trial period, but has capacity for more.
Under the deal, Rwanda can also ask the UK to take in some of its most vulnerable refugees.
However, no asylum seeker has actually been sent to the country. The first flight was scheduled to go in June, but was cancelled after the legal challenges.
Privilege Style - the airline which was scheduled to take asylum seekers to Rwanda - has said it will withdraw from its contract with the Home Office, following a campaign by refugee charities. How much will the plan cost?
So far the UK has paid the Rwandan government £140m for the scheme.
Other costs would include flights to Rwanda, food, accommodation, access to translators and legal advice. Removing people from the UK by charter flight cost more than £13,000 per person in 2020.
When the policy was announced, former Home Office Minister Tom Pursglove said the cost would be “similar to the amount of money we are spending on this currently”. He said that “longer term, by getting this under control, it should help us to save money”.
The UK’s asylum system costs £1.5bn a year. Almost £7m a day is spent on hotel accommodation for refugees and asylum seekers.
Critics say the daily cost is so high because of the time taken to decide on applications, and a ban on asylum seekers working while waiting for confirmation of their status.
What is an asylum seeker?
The UN Refugee Agency defines an asylum seeker as someone who has applied for shelter and protection in another country.
A refugee is a person who has fled conflict or persecution in their own country.
The legal rights of refugees are protected by international law. However, it is up to host countries to decide whether an asylum seeker is granted refugee status.
In the year to September 2022, the UK received 72,027 asylum applications, the highest number for nearly 20 years. Of these, more than 17,000 people and
Rwanda asylum policy: Migrants granted right to challenge
Migrants facing potential removal to Rwanda under the Home Office’s relocation scheme have won permission to challenge the policy.
Last month the High Court ruled that the scheme was lawful.
Today’s ruling means there is no prospect of flights leaving immediately while it goes to the Court of Appeal.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman has said she is committed to making the Rwanda policy work.
SharedZimbabwe activists in court accused of illegal gathering
Twenty-five Zimbabwean opposition activists have appeared in court after being arrested on Saturday.
They were accused of holding an illegal gathering at the home of Costa Machinate - an MP from the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change.
The party says on Saturday a lawyer who was trying to meet the detained opposition activists was badly beaten by the police who broke his arm.
Anti-riot police armed with assault rifles, batons and teargas prevented many journalists from attending the trial.
The opposition and rights groups say the governing Zanu-PF party has launched a campaign of violence ahead of this year's elections.BBC
Under the controversial scheme, asylum seekers who arrive from a safe country - such as in a small boat from France - can be told they will be sent to Rwanda, to have their claim for protection dealt with there.
The scheme has so far cost the UK £140m - but no migrants have been sent to the country.
During Monday’s High Court hearing, Lord Justice Lewis and Mr Justice Swift said that 11 migrants could ask the Court of Appeal to consider whether Rwanda’s assurances to the UK amounted to sufficient guarantees of safe and fair treatment.
No date has been set for the case to go before the Court of Appeal, and the Home Office is abiding by an injunction from the European Court of Human Rights, which blocked flights until after British judges had finally ruled.
The court said the group could argue that sending them to Rwanda penalised them for seeking protection and that the entire plan is systemically unfair.
In December’s judgement, the High Court had ruled that while individual migrants earmarked for the Rwanda flights had been treated unfairly, the scheme as a whole was legally permissible and the government had acted rationally in choosing the African nation as a partner.
Asylum Aid, a charity, is also expected to lodge an appeal, saying that it can provide the court with expert evidence that Home Office decision-making is systemically unfair.
Three organisations who were part of the original case - Care4Calais, the PCSU union that represents immigration caseworkers and Detention Action, had their cases thrown out last December - but have another fortnight to consider trying to appeal.
This morning, the home secretary’s lawyers urged judges to only allow an appeal on issues that were genuinely compelling - while also acknowledging the case could progress to the Supreme Court after the Court of Appeal has ruled.
In practice, that could mean the plan could remain in limbo for much of 2023 - or even into next year if judges do not prioritise the appeals.
Ms Braverman has not said when she hopes a flight will leave for Rwanda.
Rishi Sunak has made ending English Channel crossings a priority and the Rwanda scheme aims to deter migrants from taking small boats across the sea.
Somali forces take key coastal town from al-Shabab
The military in Somalia has captured a strategic coastal town that al-Shabab jihadists had held for more than a decade.
Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre described the taking of Haradhere, in central Galmudug state, as an historic victory.
He said the enemy of the nation had been destroyed.
Other officials said the Islamist militant group fled without putting up a fight.
The loss of the port and supply route is seen as a set-back for al-Shabab.
In recent months it has lost swathes of territory during a sustained offensive by government forces working with clan militias. But the al-Qaeda-linked insurgents have responded with frequent bomb attacks.
Ethiopia dead likely in hundreds of thousands - official
The number of people who died during the two-year-long civil war in northern Ethiopia is likely to be in the hundreds of thousands but it is very hard “to tell the exact number”, head of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission Daniel Bekele told BBC Focus on Africa.
He was responding to an estimate of 600,000 dead given by Africa Union mediator Olusegun Obasanjo to the UK’s Financial Times newspaper.
