The contentious proposal, announced in April by Sunak’s predecessor Boris Johnson, has long been embroiled in a series of legal challenges. While the British government has already paid more than $146 million to Rwanda to accept asylum seekers under the plan, it has not yet resulted in any deportations to the East African country.
In Monday’s ruling, judges dismissed a challenge brought by human rights groups and individuals from Syria, Iran, and Iraq, who argued that the plan was in breach of the United Kingdom’s legal obligations to people seeking asylum, including those set out in the 1951 Refugee Convention.
“It is lawful for the government to make arrangements for relocating asylum seekers to Rwanda and for their asylum claims to be determined in Rwanda rather than in the United Kingdom,” the court said in a summary of the judgment shared on its website Monday.
It was not immediately clear whether the ruling means deportation flights to Rwanda can begin, as the plan is still subject to an emergency injunction by the European Court of Human Rights in June preventing deportations until the legal process has been exhausted. The ruling may also be appealed.
Care4Calais, one of the rights groups that brought the challenge, tweeted that it was considering appealing the ruling to a higher court: “This is only the first court judgement. We remain steadfast in our opposition to the policy and in our determination to ensure that no human is forcibly deported.”
Duncan Lewis, a law firm representing some of the clients, also tweeted that its lawyers were disappointed with the judgment and that the firm was considering further appeals.
Adam Wagner, an expert in constitutional law, said he expected the ruling to be appealed to Britain’s Court of Appeal and then to the Supreme Court, the nation’s highest court.
In Monday’s ruling, the judges found that the British government had made adequate arrangements with the Rwandan government to ensure that its officials would fairly determine asylum claims of those sent there.
But in a partial rebuke to Britain’s Home Office, which is responsible for immigration policy, the court ordered officials to review the cases of eight individuals whom the department had attempted to deport under the plan in June.
Britain wants to put all or most adult immigrants who arrive illegally on its shores onto planes to fly 4,000 miles away to East Africa, where they would be given the option of waiting for their claims to be assessed or allowed to return to their home countries.
British Home Secretary Suella Braverman welcomed the ruling, saying in a statement posted to Twitter: “We’ve always maintained that this policy is lawful and today the Court have upheld this.”
“Our groundbreaking migration partnership with Rwanda will provide individuals relocated with support to build new lives there, while disrupting the business model of people smuggling gangs putting lives at risk through dangerous and illegal small boat crossings,” she added.
Johnson, the prime minister who announced the Rwanda plan, also applauded the ruling in a tweet, describing the Rwanda plan as “one of the only humane ways of dealing with the vile people trafficking gangs who are exploiting so many people.”
William Booth and Karla Adam in London contributed to this report.
