British lawyers could be stationed in Rwandan courts to make sure asylum treaty goes ahead – as Rishi Sunak is set to hand over another £15m to sweeten fresh terms with the African nation
British lawyers could be sent to work in Rwandan courts as part of a new treaty aimed at finally implementing the Government’s asylum plan – as Rishi Sunak prepares to hand another £15million to the East African nation.
Home Secretary James Cleverly is understood to be close to finalising a treaty with Rwanda as part of Rishi Sunak’s goal of making the plan legally watertight following the Supreme Court’s ruling against the scheme.
Cabinet minister Lucy Frazer said the Home Office was looking ‘very carefully’ at the idea of sending UK Government lawyers to Rwanda to address concerns about the legal system there.
British lawyers could be sent to advise Rwandan judges, perhaps for specific asylum case hearings or for longer periods, to help ensure asylum appeals are granted correctly.
However, the government in Kigali is unlikely to accept any arrangement which would look like colonial-style legal interference.
Home Secretary James Cleverly is expected to sign an improved treaty with Rwanda in the next week
A hostel in Kigali that was due to be used by asylum seekers sent to Rwanda from the UK
If a deal is reached, Mr Cleverly could head to Rwanda as soon as this week to sign the treaty, with domestic legislation also planned so the UK Parliament could assert the African nation is a safe destination for asylum seekers who arrive in Britain.
Culture Secretary Ms Frazer was pressed on whether British lawyers could be stationed in Rwanda’s courts following reports in the Telegraph.
She told BBC Breakfast: ‘There is an issue about processing and I know that the Home Office are looking at that very carefully.’
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She added: ‘I know that the Home Secretary James Cleverly is now working with Rwanda on a new treaty, and we will be bringing forward legislation in due course.’
Mr Sunak is expected to offer an extra £15m on top of the £140m already given to Kigali to sweeten the much-vaunted deal.
In the wake of the Supreme Court judgment on November 15, the Government insisted it had been working on contingency measures and promised a treaty with Rwanda within days along with emergency legislation in Parliament – but neither has yet emerged.
There has been speculation that Rwanda is pushing for more money on top of the £140million already committed to the scheme.
Prime Minister Mr Sunak met Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame on the sidelines of the Cop28 climate talks in Dubai on Friday.
He declined afterwards to say how much more money he would spend to get the scheme off the ground.
Insiders say Mr Sunak is vowing his Plan B for Rwanda will be ‘watertight’, amid fears proposed tactics could be thwarted by government lawyers.
Mr Sunak is also expected to authorise millions more pounds to be given to Rwanda to improve its asylum system, while Home Secretary James Cleverly is set to sign an improved treaty with the East African country in the next week.
It comes as the latest figures show 1,264 would-be refugees braved icy conditions to cross the Channel in the past week, including 519 on Saturday alone.
A group of migrants are brought ashore at Dover amid freezing conditions on Saturday
The number of illegal migrants reaching the UK this year is now believed to have topped the 28,526 recorded in 2021 – although arrivals are still a third down on the record set last year.
Last night a government source said: ‘As the PM said, the British people want action and their patience has been stretched. The Government is up for taking robust measures, providing they work.’
The PM announced his new approach last month after the Supreme Court dealt a fatal blow to the original plan by ruling that there were ‘substantial grounds’ to believe people put on a one-way flight to Rwanda could be sent on to other countries where they would be unsafe.
READ MORE – Rishi Sunak ‘will hand Rwanda another £15m’ to sign treaty and keep Channel migrants deportation plan alive
The Plan B comprises three parts: a treaty with Rwanda, emergency legislation to declare the country is safe, and a bundle of evidence explaining why anyone sent there would not be mistreated.
There has been intense debate in the Tory party over how far the Bill should go, with more than 20 MPs on the Right demanding what is now known as a ‘full fat’ option.
This would include so-called ‘notwithstanding’ clauses, allowing the Government to ignore the UK’s Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in asylum cases as well as removing the right of migrants to challenge their deportation through judicial review.
A less hardline approach would override human rights law while still allowing challenges by individuals.
But there are concerns that ministers are receiving advice from officials including government lawyers who say they cannot do anything they feel would breach the Civil Service Code such as ignoring human rights laws.
‘It’s anathema to them,’ said one insider. ‘They will say ‘I don’t want to be the lawyer who does this’.
‘Because Mr Cleverly has only been in his new role as Home Secretary for a few weeks, Attorney General Victoria Prentis is playing a major role looking through the draft Bill.
This year became the second highest on record despite Rishi Sunak ‘s pledge to reduce the number of boats arriving in Britain
She is understood to have warned that disapplying the ECHR would be unlawful.
As officials continued to work on the plan over the weekend, Health Secretary Victoria Atkins told Sky News yesterday: ‘It will take a little bit of time to draw up this legislation because we want to make sure it’s in the right form.’
Asked if it would appear before Christmas she said: ‘I know the Home Secretary is working incredibly hard and quickly on this.’
How Rwanda flight plan was grounded
The Supreme Court judgment on the Government’s plan to removal asylum seekers to Rwanda comes more than 18 months after it was first announced.
2022
April 14: Following a drastic increase in the number of people crossing the Channel in small boats, then-prime minister Boris Johnson announces a £140million plan to deport migrants arriving in small boats to Rwanda for their claims to be processed. Then home secretary Priti Patel travels to Kigali to sign the deal (pictured)
June 15: The first flight is cancelled just minutes before take-off following a ruling by a judge at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
August 23: The Ministry of Defence says 1,295 migrants crossed the Channel in 27 small boats, still the daily record.
November 14: New home secretary Suella Braverman signs an agreement with French interior minister Gerald Darmian allowing British officers to join French beach patrols.
November 23: Mrs Braverman admits the Government has ‘failed to control our borders’, but tells MPs they are determined to ‘fix’ the problem, following criticism of overcrowding at the Manston processing centre in Kent.
December 14: Four people die while 39 others are rescued after their dinghy capsizes in the Channel.
December 19: The High Court rules the Government’s Rwanda policy is lawful, but orders the cases of the first eight deportees to be reconsidered.
December 31: A total of 45,755 migrants made the Channel crossing over the course of the year, according to Government figures.
2023
January 4: Rishi Sunak announces legislation to tackle the migrant crisis is one of five key priorities for his premiership.
March 7: Mrs Braverman tells MPs the Illegal Migration Bill will impose a legal duty to remove those arriving in the country illegally, barring them from claiming asylum in the UK.
March 12: Chancellor Jeremy Hunt does not rule out the prospect of children being detained under the new plans, which would see those crossing the Channel eligible for asylum only in a ‘safe’ third country such as Rwanda.
March 13: Former Tory PM Theresa May says it is ‘not enough’ to send people to claim asylum in Rwanda and warns the UK is ‘shutting the door’ on victims of modern slavery.
March 14: A High Court judge rules that asylum seekers facing removal to Rwanda can appeal against Home Office decisions over alleged errors in considering whether it poses a risk to their human rights.
March 17: Mrs Braverman doubles down on the deportation policy on a visit to Rwanda, saying it will be a ‘powerful deterrent’ to those attempting to cross the Channel.
March 29: The Government unveils plans to house asylum seekers on disused military bases, ferries and barges in a bid to cut spending on hotels.
May 25: Figures show the asylum backlog has hit a new record high with more than three quarters of claims made by people who crossed the Channel since 2018 still awaiting a decision.
June 18: The number of Channel crossings for the year so far tops 10,000.
June 26: Estimates in a Home Office assessment reveal £169,000 could be spent on every asylum seeker forcibly removed to a third country such as Rwanda.
June 29: The Home Secretary lashes out at ‘phoney humanitarianism’ hindering efforts to stop Channel crossings as the Government loses the latest legal battle over its plans to send migrants to Rwanda after a Court of Appeal ruling.
July 3: A new record is set for migrant crossings, with 3,824 arrivals in June – the highest total for that month since records began in 2018.
July 13: The Government is given the go-ahead to take the legal battle over its Rwanda deportation policy to the Supreme Court.
July 20: Sweeping asylum reforms under the Illegal Migration Bill become law. The number of migrants crossing the Channel tops 14,000 for the year so far.
July 21: Officials insist the Bibby Stockholm barge, due to house migrants in Portland off the Dorset coast, is not a ‘floating prison’ as they give reporters a tour of the facilities.
July 27: Mrs Braverman buys marquees to sleep 2,000 asylum seekers on disused military sites in a bid to avoid using hotels.
August 1: Figures show the average number of migrants crossing the Channel per boat in July (52) was the highest on record for any month since records began in 2018.
August 7: The first group of asylum seekers finally boards the Bibby Stockholm after weeks of setbacks and delays.
August 10: Fresh arrivals of people on lifeboats take the number of Channel crossings since 2018 past the 100,000 mark.
August 11: Asylum seekers who arrived on the Bibby Stockholm barge are removed after Legionella bacteria was found in the water.
August 12: Six people are confirmed to have died after a boat carrying migrants sank in the Channel.
August 19: More than 25,000 asylum seekers are said to have arrived in Britain via small boats since Mr Sunak became Prime Minister, according to figures analysed by the Labour Party.
August 24: The UK’s asylum backlog hits a a new record high, with 80 per cent of people waiting longer than six months for an initial decision. The bill for the taxpayer almost doubles in a year to nearly £4 billion.
September 3: The highest number of small boat migrant crossings in a single day of 2023 is recorded, with some 872 people crossing on 15 small vessels.
September 19: The Home Office is paying ‘around £8 million’ per day for asylum seekers to be put up in hotels, according to the department’s annual accounts.
September 26: Mrs Braverman uses a speech in the United States to advocate for the United Nations’ Refugee Convention to be overhauled.
September 27: Asylum seekers pretend to be gay to ‘game the system’ and to get ‘special treatment’, the Home Secretary says.
October 3: Small boat arrivals in 2023 pass 25,000, figures confirm. At the Conservative Party conference, Mrs Braverman warns that a ‘hurricane’ of mass migration is coming.
October 9: The start of a three-day hearing at the Supreme Court of the Government’s challenge to the Court of Appeal’s ruling that the plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda are unlawful.
November 13: Mrs Braverman is sacked.
November 15: The Supreme Court confirms Appeal Court decision that that the Rwanda flights plan is unlawful.
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