A Belfast judge ruled that the United Kingdom’s law to deport asylum-seekers should not apply in Northern Ireland due to violations of human rights protections. The law was found to be incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights and undermines rights provided in the Good Friday peace agreement of 1998. U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that the government would appeal the judgment, as it is central to his plan to deport migrants to Rwanda. However, the ruling could potentially impact this initiative, as it was deemed inapplicable in Northern Ireland.
The law aims to deter migrants from risking their lives crossing the English Channel by creating the prospect of deportation to Rwanda. Despite the U.K. Supreme Court ruling flights to Rwanda unsafe, a subsequent bill declared the country safe, making it harder for migrants to challenge deportation. This legislation also allows the U.K. government to ignore injunctions from the European Court of Human Rights seeking to block removals. High Court Justice Michael Humphreys found that certain aspects of the law violated human rights protections outlined in a post-Brexit deal between the U.K. and the European Union known as the Windsor Framework.
The Windsor Framework stipulates that the U.K. must honor the peace accord that largely ended the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The leader of the Democratic Unionist Party stated that the government had been warned that its immigration policy would not be applicable in Northern Ireland due to its incompatibility with the post-Brexit agreement with the E.U. The Good Friday agreement was not intended to cover issues like illegal migration, according to Sunak. The law was challenged by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and a 16-year-old Iranian asylum-seeker who is living in Northern Ireland and fears imprisonment or death if deported back to Iran.
The ruling places a temporary stay on the law, pending further review later in the month. The decision is seen as a significant obstacle to the government’s deportation plans for asylum-seekers in Rwanda, emphasizing the necessity for a legal framework that upholds human rights protections and international agreements. Attorney Sinéad Marmion described the ruling as a major setback for the government’s implementation of the deportation law in Northern Ireland, highlighting the complexities and implications of immigration policies on regional and international levels. The ongoing legal battle underscores the importance of balancing security concerns with respect for human rights in asylum and immigration procedures.
