Law allowing asylum seekers to be detained and sent to Rwanda disapplied by Northern Ireland court
Law allowing asylum seekers to be detained and sent to Rwanda disapplied by Northern Ireland court
A judge has ruled that provisions of the UK's Illegal Migration Act - which created powers to send asylum seekers to Rwanda - should be disapplied in Northern Ireland.
The High Court in Belfast on Monday morning ordered the "disapplication" of sections of the act as they undermine human rights protections guaranteed in the region under post-Brexit arrangements.
The Illegal Migration Act provides new powers for the government to detain and remove asylum seekers it deems to have arrived illegally in the UK. Central to the new laws is the scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Mr Justice Humphreys said aspects of the Illegal Migration Act were also incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Following Brexit, the UK and the EU agreed the Windsor Framework, which stipulates there can be no diminution of the rights provisions contained within the Good Friday peace agreement of 1998, even if they differ from the rest of the UK.
The judge found several elements of the Illegal Immigration Act cause a "significant" diminution of the rights enjoyed by asylum seekers in Northern Ireland under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
"I have found that there is a relevant diminution of right in each of the areas relied upon by the applicants," he said.
