Ireland High Court rules UK not safe for asylum applicants due to Rwanda plan News
Sheila1988, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Ireland High Court rules UK not safe for asylum applicants due to Rwanda plan

The Irish High Court ruled Friday that a decision made by the country’s Minister for Justice in 2020 to declare the UK a “safe country” to send asylum seekers back to during processing was “unlawful as a matter of EU law.”

The decision came after two individuals’ applications for international protection in Ireland were rejected because of their connections with the UK, which is attempting to adopt a plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda while their applications are being reviewed. The initiative has been overruled by the UK Supreme Court on the grounds that Rwanda is not a safe country to send asylum seekers to. After the ruling, the UK Parliament attempted to bypass the court’s decision by issuing the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill.

The Ireland High Court argued that since the UK is willing to turn its asylum seekers back to Rwanda, which Ireland hasn’t designated to be a safe country, the 2020 decision by the Minister for Justice was in breach of the principle of refoulment, which states that no asylum seeker should be turned back to a country where their basic rights would be in risk of violation.

The UK has yet to respond to the ruling.

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