Braverman Got One Thing Right About Rwanda
In the same way that a broken clock is right twice a day, Suella Braverman is probably correct in thinking that Rishi Sunak’s attempt to save the Rwanda plan is fundamentally flawed.
While she welcomed the emergency legislation, the former Home Secretary said that a new treaty with Rwanda would not be enough and that significant changes to the Illegal Migration Act 2023 would be required instead. This is probably true but these are the sort of changes that prompted one Conservative MP to compare Braverman to Putin.
Even these extreme types of reforms would most likely run up against the basic tenets of international law. It is no coincidence that the Supreme Court framed its decision last week in the context of non-refoulement, the principle from international law that asylum seekers must not be sent back to a country where they would face danger of persecution based on certain protected characteristics.
The truth is that Braverman, Sunak, or anyone on the front bench could write an immigration law in any way they want and exclude judicial review, human rights law etc. but it would still not get much further in the courts. Even if the policy made it past the judiciary in the UK it would only set up a conflict with the European Court of Human Rights.
Leaving the Council of Europe and abandoning our commitment to the Convention would, of course, be an option at that stage. It is not impossible that it becomes a commitment in the Conservative Party manifesto or policy after the next general election.
This, however, would present its own problems. Outside of making the UK more of a pariah of global politics, the move would also do significant damage to peace in Northern Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement is underpinned by the Convention and anything that undermines that relationship also undermines peace in the region.
Suella Braverman may have been right to critique the government response to the judgment from the Supreme Court but the truth is that any attempted solution only serves to prove even further just how unworkable the Rwanda policy remains.
This week on the podcast a case about European Arrest Warrants offers up a chance to discuss the value of the system for the UK and under what circumstances a request for extradition might be denied by our courts.
Episode link: http://uklawweekly.com/2023-uksc-39/
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