Summary
This report considers the following treaty, laid before Parliament in accordance with section 20 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010:
- Agreement between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the Republic of Rwanda for the provision of an asylum partnership to strengthen shared international commitments on the protection of refugees and migrants (“the Rwanda Treaty”).
The Rwanda Treaty responds to the judgment of the Supreme Court of 15 November 2023 which declared unlawful the Government’s policy to send asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing by the Rwandan Government, on the grounds that Rwanda is not a safe country by reason of the risk to asylum seekers of refoulement, i.e. sending them to a country where they may be persecuted. The Supreme Court did not doubt the good faith of the government of Rwanda. Nor was it concerned about the terms of the previous MOU. Its main concern was the operation of Rwanda’s asylum system in practice. The Rwanda Treaty underpins the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill by which the Government proposes that Parliament should declare through legislation that Rwanda is a safe country, notwithstanding the findings of the Supreme Court. Parliament is asked to make this declaration—which under the Bill cannot be challenged in the courts—on the basis of the arrangements provided by the Rwanda Treaty.
The Rwanda Treaty puts into legally binding form the arrangements previously set out in a 2022 Memorandum of Understanding with Rwanda, but with some enhancements, notably a new asylum procedure and a commitment that no person relocated under the Treaty to Rwanda will be sent to any country other than the UK, if the UK so requests.
On paper the Rwanda Treaty improves the protections previously set out in the Memorandum of Understanding, but there are a significant number of legal and practical steps which need to be taken before the protections could be deemed operational such that they might make a difference to the assessment reached by the Supreme Court. Evidence that these arrangements have bedded down in practice is also needed. In short, the Treaty is unlikely to change the position in Rwanda in the short to medium term.
We recommend that the Treaty is not ratified until Parliament is satisfied that the protections it provides have been fully implemented since Parliament is being asked to make a judgement, based on the Treaty, about whether Rwanda is safe. The Government should submit further information to Parliament to confirm that all the necessary legal and practical steps and training which underpin the protections provided in the Treaty have been put in place, and then allow for a further debate before proceeding to ratification.