After Rwanda plan is ruled unlawful, Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman continue their efforts to rig system against asylum seekers – Scotsman comment

The UK has a duty to allow people to claim asylum in this country

The decision by two judges that the UK Government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda is unlawful – on the grounds that people with a genuine claim might be sent back to the country they had fled to face persecution or worse – is welcome. If there is any doubt that Rwanda is a “safe third country”, the UK should not offload its responsibilities in this way.

Of course, it should not offload its responsibilities at all. Britain has a duty to allow people to make claims for asylum and it is the government’s refusal to make this practically possible for most that has caused the surge in the number of people crossing the English Channel.

Rishi Sunak said the decision was wrong and the government would appeal, while Home Secretary Suella Braverman complained “the system is rigged against the British people”. The system she disparages is a vital one, the rule of law, and the only victims of any ‘rigging' are the desperate people risking their lives to find a sanctuary whom Braverman and Sunak are so eager to turn away.