Permission to Appeal granted in Asylum Aid’s judicial review of the plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda  

Asylum Aid has been granted permission to appeal against the Divisional Court’s judgment on the Rwanda plan. The appeal was featured in The Lawyer’s Top 10 Appeals for 2023 earlier this week.

Asylum Aid, a charity providing legal representation to people seeking protection from persecution in the UK, argues that the procedure adopted for sending individuals to Rwanda is inherently unfair because it gives asylum seekers, newly arrived and in detention, just 7 days to understand that they were being considered for removal to Rwanda, to obtain legal representation, and to make their case as to why they should not be sent to Rwanda. It is argued that this short timeframe does not provide sufficient time for individuals to make their case, particularly when they then have as little as 5 working days after the decision to get to Court before they could end up on a plane.

The Divisional Court ruled that there was nothing inherently unfair about the timeframe. This finding rests upon the conclusion that fairness does not require that individuals be given an opportunity to make representations on all matters relevant to the decision, including the general safety of Rwanda for individuals seeking asylum. The Divisional Court also found that asylum seekers do not need to have access to lawyers to have a fair chance of responding within the timeframe, despite the Home Office recognising that lawyers were needed.

Asylum Aid is appealing to the Court of Appeal on the basis that, inter alia, the Divisional Court was wrong and common law procedural fairness does require that individuals have the opportunity to make representations on all relevant matters and access to the SSHD’s provisional conclusions against them, that fairness does require access to lawyers to make representations, and therefore that the timeframes are too short.

Michelle Knorr and Sarah Dobbie are instructed by Leigh Day on behalf of Asylum Aid. Alison Pickup, Director of Asylum Aid and Associate Tenant of Doughty Street Chambers, is leading the team at Asylum Aid.

Asylum Aid is currently crowdfunding to support its appeal. For more information and if you would like to contribute, click here.