U.K. COURT UPHOLDS POLICY ON DEPORTATION

A court on Monday ruled in favor of a British government plan to f ly asylum seekers to Rwanda but also said that specific deportation cases should be reconsidered, leaving doubt as to when — or whether — the highly contentious policy would be put into action.

Britain’s move to outsource asylum applications to Rwanda is intended to deter migrants from crossing the English Channel in small boats, and Monday’s ruling in the High Court in London follows the deaths last week of four people who were attempting the voyage.

But it also comes against the backdrop of tension within the ruling Conservative Party over the arrival of the boats — concerns that last week prompted Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to announce new plans to tackle Britain’s big backlog in asylum claims and to fast-track the return of most Albanians seeking refugee status.

Advocacy groups say that the processing of asylum claims in Rwanda, whose human rights record has been criticized, would violate international law and would not deter those risking the dangerous journey.

In Monday’s ruling, the court decided that, in principle, the Rwanda policy does not break the law and is consistent with the government’s legal obligations, including those imposed by Parliament with the 1998 Human Rights Act.

Nevertheless it also ruled that the cases of eight people who were initially scheduled for deportation to Rwanda had not been properly considered, and it ordered a new review of them by the home secretary.

“The home secretary must decide if there is anything about each person’s particular circumstances which means that his asylum claim should be determined in the United Kingdom or whether there are other reasons why he should not be relocated to Rwanda,” read a summary of the ruling.

That is likely to encourage any future deportees to mount legal challenges to stop them being put on flights to Rwanda, experts say. “I am skeptical that a single airplane will go,” said Adam Wagner, a civil liberties lawyer, who added that lawyers representing those arriving in Britain in small boats will have to be given time to assess their cases.

The government said that it welcomed the judgment and was committed to defending the policy against any future legal challenges.