The Rwanda plan has proven to be one of the most singularly expensive, ineffective and inhumane asylum schemes in modern British history.
When the government announced its plans to remove asylum seekers to Rwanda for offshore processing on April 14, 2022, moral and legal challenges from across the UK swiftly followed. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby dubbed the scheme “the opposite of the nature of God”, while Lord Alf Dubs, who came to the UK on kindertransport, described it as “state-sponsored trafficking”. As Open Rights Group and Foxglove mounted a legal challenge regarding the sharing of personal data with the Rwandan government, the Public and Commercial Services civil servants’ union worked with migrant right charities Detention Action and Care4Calais to post the matter for judicial review. Regardless, the Home Office pressed on and issued thousands of removal notices to asylum seekers.
In June 2022, the first removal flight to Rwanda was halted on the runway after the European Court of Human Rights provided interim relief, citing evidence that asylum seekers processed in Rwanda would not have access to fair and efficient procedures. As the government continued to face legal and operational challenges – in October 2022, the airline contracted to conduct the removals announced it had pulled out – public scrutiny of the plan's true cost added fuel to arguments to scrap it altogether. Despite having already been paid £140m in development funding, the Rwandan government announced it would only have space for 200 asylum seekers, and, in any case, asylum seekers continued to cross the English Channel, suggesting that the scheme would not deter future asylum seekers either.
2022 ended with a fl eeting moment of success for the Home Office, as the High Court ruled that the Rwanda plan was lawful. But the Court of Appeal overturned the High Court's ruling in June 2023, on the basis that there was a real risk asylum seekers could be sent back
