Rishi Sunak to bring in emergency law on Rwanda policy after Supreme Court ruling

It’s one of the more bizarre of the British government’s policy initiatives. For a couple of years, they have been working on a plan to parcel off illegal immigrants to the small central African nation of Rwanda. The aim is to discourage potential asylum seekers from making the deeply hazardous journey from France in small boats organised by criminal gangs.

But no migrant to Britain has yet been sent against their will to Rwanda – and it’s now possible that none will ever make that journey. The Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously decreed that deporting asylum applicants to Rwanda is unlawful. As a result, Rishi Sunak’s key initiative to address the politically charged issue of illegal immigration is in ruins.

The Supreme Court didn’t rule that any forced resettlement of asylum seekers to a third country was against the law.