U.K. court upholds plan to deport refugees to Rwanda

Judges at the United Kingdom’s High Court ruled on Monday that the government’s plan to send asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda is lawful.

The judges said the policy did not breach Britain’s obligations under the U.N. Refugee Convention or other international agreements.

However they criticized the government for failing to properly assess the circumstances of the eight individuals it tried to move under the scheme earlier this year.

The plan, which involves flying asylum seekers arriving in Britain some 4,000 miles to the African nation to be processed according to Rwandan laws, triggered several legal challenges from human rights campaigners.

The government has consistently backed the plan announced in April and has accused lawyers representing asylum seekers of “abetting” criminal gangs.

The ruling is a welcome boost for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government that’s fighting escalating industrial action across transport and health care as well as tackling record levels of inflation.

Britain has paid Rwanda more than $146 million under the deal struck in April, but no one has yet been sent to the country.

The U.K. was forced to cancel the first deportation flight at the last minute in June after the European Court of Human Rights ruled the plan carried a real risk of irreversible harm.