Belfast’s High Court found parts of Westminster’s migration laws would see a reduction in rights for asylum seekers laid out in the Good Friday Agreement.
Rishi Sunak has said the government will appeal against a court ruling 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), which the UK remains signed up to.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the government would appeal against the ruling and the judgment “changes nothing about our operational plans to send illegal migrants to Rwanda this July or the lawfulness of our Safety of Rwanda Act”.
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 that several elements of the Illegal Immigration Act resulted in a “significant” reduction in the rights available to asylum seekers in Northern Ireland under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
“We find that there are significant limitations on rights in each of the areas raised by the applicant,” he said.
He further added: “The applicant’s present application therefore succeeds.Each of the legal provisions under consideration contravenes the protections (rights, safeguards and equal opportunities) afforded to the RSE in the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. ”
The judge ruled that the parts of the law that were the subject of legal challenge were: It “should not apply” in Northern Ireland.
The conflict between Ireland and the UK is set to escalate further in recent weeks after the Dublin government introduced plans to return asylum seekers who crossed the border from Northern Ireland back to the UK. .
The plan was introduced after Rwanda’s security law came into force at the end of April. The law declares African states to be safe havens for deporting asylum seekers.
Irish Justice Minister Helen McEntee told a parliamentary committee that more than 80% of new arrivals to Ireland came via the land border with Northern Ireland.
Mr Modey’s case was filed with the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and by a 16-year-old asylum seeker from Iran who arrived in the UK on a small boat from France as an unaccompanied child last summer. brought up in court.
He currently lives in Northern Ireland, and although his application has not yet been decided, he said he would be killed or imprisoned if sent back to Iran.
Mr Justice Humphreys agreed to temporarily suspend the refusal decision until a further hearing at the end of May, when the applicant could respond to the judgment.
Lawyer Sinead Marmion, who represented the boy, said the verdict was “very important”.
She said this would make the Rwandan regime inapplicable to Northern Ireland.
“This is a huge headache for the government and has completely ruined her job,” she said.
“There are significant obstacles to actually implementing this in Northern Ireland as it has been found to be inconsistent with the Windsor Framework.”
The Prime Minister said: “This judgment is an important step in our operational plan.” It does not change anything and is illegal.” Will we send migrants to Rwanda in July? Or the legality of our laws regarding the security of Rwanda? ”
“We continue to work towards providing scheduled flights to Rwanda in the coming weeks and there is nothing that will prevent us from sticking to the schedule that I have set.
“Starting flights to stop boats
“I have always been clear that the promises of the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement should be interpreted as they were always intended and should not be extended to include issues such as illegal immigration.
Northern Ireland DUP leader Gavin Robinson has called on the UK government to prevent rifts in immigration policy between the UK nations.
He said the party had warned the government that the Rwanda Plan “does not apply”. But he said they were not listening and that if countries followed different policies, Northern Ireland would become a “magnet for asylum seekers who want to avoid coercion”.
“For ministers to ignore the court’s judgment is not just a sleepwalking approach to creating an immigration border in the Irish Sea, it is a matter of walking down that road with eyes wide open,” he said. . Added