Airlines flying asylum seekers to Rwanda risk breaching human rights laws, UN claims
Airlines flying asylum seekers to Rwanda risk breaching human rights laws, experts at the United Nations have warned.
The experts from the UN human rights council issued a statement today arguing the airlines should know the legal risk with deporting illegal immigrants.
Siobhán Mullally, special rapporteur on trafficking in persons, Gehad Madi, and Allice Jill Edwards, special rapporteur on torture, penned the advice.
“Even if the UK-Rwanda agreement and the ‘Safety of Rwanda’ bill are approved, airlines and aviation regulators could be complicit in violating internationally protected human rights and court orders by facilitating removals to Rwanda,” the statement said.
“If airlines and aviation authorities give effect to state decisions that violate human rights, they must be held responsible for their conduct.
“As the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights underline, aviation regulators, international organisations and business actors are required to respect human rights.”
Mullally, Madi and Edwards highlighted the risk of asylum seekers suffering “refoulement”.
The situation means migrants face being returned to a country where they are at risk of persecution.
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Rishi Sunak’s ambition to implement the policy has been dealt a number of major blows in recent months, including from the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court cited similar risks as it ruled Rwanda was not a safe country in its judgment on the deportation policy last year.
However, the Prime Minister subsequently pushed through measures to ensure the refoulement threat no longer applied.
The UK will start deporting migrants to Rwanda in the next 10 to 12 weeks, Sunak claimed at a press conference this morning.
The Prime Minister said: “Parliament will sit there tonight and vote no matter how late it goes, no ifs, no buts, these flights are going to Rwanda.
“We are going to deliver this indispensable deterrent so that we finally break the business model of the criminal gangs and save lives.
“Starting from the moment the bill passes, we will begin the process of removing those identified for the first flight. We have prepared for this moment.”
He added: “These flights will go come what may. No foreign court will stop us from getting flights off.”
The UK’s future as a member of the European Court of Human Rights has been brought into question since Sunak has been pushing to get his Rwanda plan off the ground.
A Cabinet cabal could soon follow if the Prime Minister opted to quit the Strasbourg-based court, with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and Justice Secretary Alex Chalk among the MPs reportedly against the move.