Policy paper

Migration and Economic Development Partnership: factsheet

Published 15 November 2023

Background to the MEDP

On Thursday 14 April 2022, the UK and Rwanda announced a new Migration and Economic Development Partnership (MEDP) to redress the imbalance between illegal and legal migration routes.

The MEDP provides for the relocation to Rwanda of individuals who arrived in the UK through an illegal and dangerous route on or after 1 January 2022 and who do not have a right to stay here. Everyone considered for relocation will be screened and have access to legal advice.

Once individuals are relocated to Rwanda, they will have their needs looked after while their claims are being considered. This includes safe and clean accommodation, food, healthcare, and amenities. They will have access to translators and will be able to access legal support. People are free to leave if they wish and they will not be detained. But those in genuine need of international protection will be provided with it in Rwanda.

The MEDP is part of a suite of measures that were introduced in the New Plan for Immigration to break the business model of people smugglers while making a fair and robust immigration and borders system. On 20 July 2023 the Illegal Migration Act received Royal Assent. This act (once relevant provisions are commenced) places a duty on the Secretary of State to make arrangements for removing individuals who come to the UK illegally either to their home country or a safe third country.

Why did this government want to proceed with this partnership?

Access to the UK’s asylum system should be based on need, not on the ability to pay people smugglers. If you illegally or irregularly enter the UK through a safe country in which you could have claimed asylum, you are not seeking refuge from imminent peril as is the intended purpose of the asylum system but are picking the UK as a preferred destination over others.

The MEDP is an innovative and ambitious arrangement which seeks to set a new international approach to:

• enhance economic prosperity in the region by investing in upskilling, development and projects which will benefit both migrants and their hosts
• support those fleeing persecution, giving them the best possible chance to rebuild their lives
• ensure that immigration to the UK is orderly and controlled. Those who have already reached safe countries with fully functioning asylum systems should not be travelling further to another country as a matter of preference
• disrupt the business model of organised crime gangs, making them unable to fulfil their contract to smuggle people across borders and thereby preventing loss of life

International

Other countries are now publicly calling for similar approaches to the MEDP arrangement to deal with the serious pressure posed by illegal migration. Italy have announced their intention to pursue an offshore asylum model with Albania. Austria have said they are interested in exploring the concept, and the Germans are looking into similar options.

Unprecedented levels of illegal migration are being facilitated by criminal smuggling gangs. We need pragmatic ideas on an international scale to rise to this challenge and break the business model of these gangs. Working with third countries in new ways is part of this, and the UK is always open to conversations with other countries on this area of work.

Legal proceedings

The Home Office attempted to remove individuals to Rwanda under the MEDP in June 2022. Those individuals challenged their removal by way of judicial review proceedings. The challenge was initially considered by the Divisional Court (with hearings in September and October 2022). In its judgment on 19 December 2022, the court found in the Home Office’s favour on the main legal questions relating to the lawfulness of the policy. The claimants then appealed this decision.

Following a hearing from 24 to 27 April 2023, the Court of Appeal found (in its judgment on 29 June 2023) that there were substantial grounds for believing that asylum seekers removed to Rwanda faced a real risk that their asylum claims would be wrongly refused leading to them being sent to third countries (‘refouled’) where they could face ill-treatment as a result of deficiencies in the asylum system in Rwanda.

The Court of Appeal also considered the issue of compliance with the Refugee Convention and concluded that, in principle, relocating migrants to safe third countries to process their asylum claims is consistent with the Refugee Convention. That issue was not appealed by the claimants.

The result of the Court of Appeal’s finding on refoulement was that the High Court’s decision in December 2022 was reversed, meaning it was unlawful to remove individuals to Rwanda. The then Home Secretary appealed this decision to the Supreme Court. A three-day hearing took place from 9 to 11 October 2023, in which the Supreme Court considered the Home Secretary’s appeal concerning the refoulement issue and a number of subsidiary issues, including whether the EU Asylum Procedures Directive was still in force as Retained EU Law so as to preclude removal to Rwanda of individuals with no prior connection to that country.

The Supreme Court handed down its judgment on 15 November 2023. It upheld the Court of Appeal’s findings, that there were substantial grounds for believing that asylum seekers removed to Rwanda would be at real risk of being refouled i.e. returned to their country of origin. The Home Secretary won on the Retained EU Law issue (the Court concluding the Asylum Procedures Directive was not Retained EU Law). However, that does not affect the overall outcome that the Rwanda policy is unlawful.

The Home Office is now progressing with work which will address the concerns raised by the Supreme Court, including agreeing a new treaty with Rwanda.

Read the Home Secretary’s statement on next steps for the Rwanda partnership following the Supreme Court judgment.