Serious doubts were raised over Rwanda asylum plan

RWANDA was initially excluded by government officials as a partner for the UK’S migrant scheme owing to human rights concerns, documents have revealed.

Under the partnership agreed earlier this year, the Government is planning to send migrants who arrive illegally in the UK to the east African state for resettlement. The first scheduled flight was scuppered last month after a late intervention from the European Court of Human Rights meant migrants were removed from the plane.

Legal challenges against the policy have been brought against the Home Secretary in the UK’S High Court by 10 of the migrants who were facing deportation,

‘Rwanda’s human rights record would impact our ability to raise difficult issues with the regime’

as well as human rights organisations and a union.

Documents obtained by the claimants through this legal challenge have now revealed significant concern within Whitehall about partnering with Rwanda, stretching back to last year.

One internal document, prepared in February last year, recommended the Government not pursue Rwanda as an option for a migrant partnership as it presented “significant, well-documented human rights concerns”.

The documents were quoted in written arguments by the claimants’ lawyers during a procedural hearing yesterday.

Among those advising against the scheme was the UK’S High Commissioner to Rwanda, who warned in a memo that Rwanda’s “human rights record would cause problems reputationally and impact our ability… to raise difficult issues with the regime”.