Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024

1 Introduction U.K.

(1) The purpose of this Act is to prevent and deter unlawful migration, and in particular migration by unsafe and illegal routes, by enabling the removal of persons to the Republic of Rwanda under provision made by or under the Immigration Acts.

(2) To advance that purpose—

(a) the Rwanda Treaty has been laid before Parliament under section 20 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 (treaties to be laid before Parliament before ratification) with a view to ratification by the United Kingdom, and

(b) this Act gives effect to the judgement of Parliament that the Republic of Rwanda is a safe country.

(3) The Government of the Republic of Rwanda has, in accordance with the Rwanda Treaty, agreed to fulfil the following obligations—

(a) that any person removed to the Republic of Rwanda under the provisions of the Treaty (a “relocated individual”) will not be removed from Rwanda except to the United Kingdom;

(b) that any relocated individual is to be made available for return to the United Kingdom following a request from the Government of the United Kingdom;

(c) that the system for the processing of protection claims by relocated individuals is to be improved;

(d) that relocated individuals are to be treated equally, irrespective of the status that they are granted in the Republic of Rwanda;

(e) that relocated individuals are to be provided with legal assistance for the purposes of their protection claims and any appeals relating to such claims;

(f) that the obligations mentioned in paragraphs (a) to (e) are to be independently monitored and subject to a form of binding dispute settlement.

(4) It is recognised that—

(a) the Parliament of the United Kingdom is sovereign, and

(b) the validity of an Act is unaffected by international law.

(5) For the purposes of this Act, a “safe country”—

(a) means a country to which persons may be removed from the United Kingdom in compliance with all of the United Kingdom’s obligations under international law that are relevant to the treatment in that country of persons who are removed there, and

(b) includes, in particular, a country—

(i) from which a person removed to that country will not be removed or sent to another country in contravention of any international law, and

(ii) in which any person who is seeking asylum or who has had an asylum determination will both have their claim determined and be treated in accordance with that country’s obligations under international law.

(6) For the purposes of this Act, “international law” includes—

(a) the Human Rights Convention,

(b) the Refugee Convention,

(c) the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966,

(d) the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of 1984,

(e) the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings done at Warsaw on 16 May 2005,

(f) customary international law, and

(g) any other international law, or convention or rule of international law, whatsoever, including any order, judgment, decision or measure of the European Court of Human Rights.

Commencement Information

I1 S. 1 in force at 25.4.2024 (the date of ratification of the Rwanda Treaty), see s. 10(1)