Rwanda not safe for asylum seekers and judges wrong to rule scheme lawful, Court of Appeal told

Lawyers representing migrants say Home Office failed to properly investigate situation in ‘authoritarian state’

Suella Braverman and Rwandan minister for foreign affairs Vincent Biruta in Kigali last month

(PA)

Rwanda is not a safe country to receive asylum seekers from the UK and the High Court was wrong to declare the scheme lawful, a court has heard.

A barrister representing six men selected for deportation described the east African nation as “an authoritarian one-party state”, which “imprisons, tortures and murders those it considers its opponents” and perpetuates “police violence and legal repression”.

In the latest stage of the legal battle over the scheme, Raza Husain KC told the Court of Appeal that there was a risk that asylum seekers would be denied proper process after being deported, and that judges previously displayed “excessive deference” to promises made by the Rwandan government that were not backed up by evidence.