That has not so far been done and it should now be done - immediately. 'As the judgment points out, the government has the power, under Schedule 3 of the Asylum and Immigration Act 2004, to ask parliament to deem Rwanda a safe country. He wrote: 'As Lord Burnett puts it so well, the nub of the issue is who should decide whether Rwanda is a safe country - UK government diplomats and officials who have worked for years on the project, on the ground, in Africa or judges in London who have been listening to the pleas of the lobby groups. The former PM points out the list can be amended through a vote in the parliament. ) Act 2004.Ĭurrently, this list - which contains nations to which asylum seekers can be sent - contains only European countries, mostly members of the EU. He thinks that the government should manually add Rwanda to the list of safe nations provided for in the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc. In his latest Daily Mail column, Boris Johnson has waded into the debate over the Rwanda deportation scheme.Īs he points out, it was under his premiership in April 2022 that the plan was announced - although no planes have yet left for the nation.įollowing this week's setback in the courts for the government, where deportations of asylum seekers were blocked over fears for their treatment, Mr Johnson is calling for the government to take a different route.
