Interior Ministry to rule on asylum claims of thousands stuck in Rwandan system limbo | Immigration and asylum

Thousands of asylum seekers left in limbo for more than two years waiting for a decision on the Rwandan scheme will now have their cases heard in the UK.

The decision, revealed in an appeal to the High Court on Friday, This is a radical change of position from the previous government, which passed various laws declaring that applications from those arriving after January 2022 were “inadmissible” – and therefore could not be processed in the UK.

But on Friday the court heard how the new Home Secretary had pledged to deal with applications from people facing deportation under the Migration and Economic Development Partnership (MEDP) in Britain. Keir Starmer abandoned the Rwanda programme as soon as he arrived in Downing Street.

However, a preliminary hearing had already been scheduled in London to hear developments in the claims of two asylum seekers who claimed the Home Office had acted unlawfully in delaying a decision on their applications.

Alex Goodman KC, who represents one of the asylum seekers, later told the court that the Home Office had revealed on Thursday that “all members of the MEDP cohort would now be admitted to the asylum system” and that their asylum applications would be “dealt with as a priority”.

The backlog of asylum applications has created conditions in which tens of thousands of migrants have been left in temporary accommodation such as hotels.

Within weeks of the signing of the Rwanda deal in April 2022, the Home Office began issuing notices of intent to those who had arrived in the UK via “dangerous routes”, where there was evidence they had a link to a safe third country such as France.

One of the asylum seekers attacking the Home Office is an Eritrean who suffered horrific torture and persecution in his home country while trying to escape forced military conscription and on his journey to the UK.

His argument was that the Interior Ministry’s decision to “suspend” cases like his ran counter to the objectives of Rwandan law, and that the government’s delay in determining whether an asylum application was inadmissible or not was unlawful.

Goodman had previously told the court that the “pause” policy applied to “many thousands” of claims.

The judge hearing today’s case, Ms Collins Rice, said there had been a lot of activity in recent days between asylum seekers’ lawyers and the government. It is estimated that around 90,000 people are in the backlog of cases originally intended for Rwanda and now pending in the UK.

The Labour government is reportedly considering clearing a backlog of 90,000 asylum applications – the majority of which come from conflict zones such as Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea and Sudan.

Ben Nelson, a solicitor at Duncan Lewis Solicitors representing the Eritrean asylum seeker, said: “Today’s concession is not only welcome news for our clients, but also for all vulnerable asylum seekers who have been held in limbo for over two years with the threat of deportation to Rwanda hanging over their heads.

“The decision of the new Minister of the Interior will allow our customers to continue living.”

The Home Office has been contacted for comment.

The Conservative government had promised a “steady rhythm” of flights from July 24. But Starmer abandoned the plan before anyone was forcibly deported, with the Labour leader describing the MEDP as “dead and buried before it even started”.

Starmer also said this week that he was open to the idea of ​​processing claims offshore, a policy that has proven controversial when used by countries like Australia to deter asylum seekers from arriving. So far this year, more than 10,000 people have crossed the Channel in small boats, with 317 arriving on Thursday in six boats.

Speaking after a discussion on illegal immigration with other European leaders at Blenheim Palace on Thursday, Starmer said: “I’m a practical person. I’m a pragmatist. And I’ve always said that we would look at what works and where cases can be dealt with closer to origin, so that’s something that, of course, should be looked at.”