The Law Gazette reported that three asylum seekers had their cases resolved in the High Court after they had initiated legal action to avoid being deported to Rwanda.

Speaking for the Home Office concerning the resolution, Sir James Eadie KC said the cases of the three claimants, whose identities cannot be disclosed, ‘will be fully disposed of and withdrawn’, with the Secretary of State covering the legal expenses.

These decisions follow the statement from the recently elected U.K. Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, who confirmed the government’s intention to end the current Rwanda Asylum scheme previously created by the Sunak Conservative government.

Keir Starmer described the deportation policy as ‘dead and buried’, and was ‘not prepared to continue with gimmicks that don’t act as a deterrent.’

These criticisms are in response to the potential human rights violations of the initial asylum plans and the goals of deterring migration to the U.K. across the English Channel. As described by the BBC, the policy was set in April 2022 to redirect illegal asylum-seeking immigrants to Rwanda and have their claims processed there rather than in the U.K. This threat of deportation was intended to limit asylum seekers coming across the English Channel in boats, a previous key priority for the Sunak government.

The Justice Gap has previously reported on the unlawful nature of the policy and investigations into international law violations, concluding with Keir Starmer’s recent remarks to dismiss it entirely.

As put by Rakesh Singh, a Public Law Project Solicitor on the resolution, ‘The decision is welcome news to our client who has been living under the threat of being sent to Rwanda ‘, but is not completely satisfied with the open-ended dismissal.

The client’s asylum claim regarding permanent residency will be considered within three months in the U.K. by the Home Secretary.