Hosted by Border Criminologies and the Refugee Studies Centre (University of Oxford) with The Dickson Poon School of Law (King’s College London).
This series of panel discussions will examine the arguments advanced in R (on the application of AAA and others) v SSHD and analyse its implications for Rwanda, the UK, and for refugee protection more broadly.
Our panels bring together speakers whose expertise and experience makes them uniquely placed to explore the consequences of the Supreme Court’s judgement from a range of jurisdictional, institutional, political and legal perspectives.
Convenors:
Nicola Palmer, Reader in Criminal Law, The Dickson Poon School of Law.
Catherine Briddick, Andrew W Mellon Associate Professor of International Human Rights and Refugee Law, Refugee Studies Centre.
BACKGROUND
In April 2022, the UK Government and Rwanda entered into a Migration and Economic Development Partnership (MEDP) through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). This political agreement seeks to enable the ‘transfer’, or forced removal, of asylum-seekers from the UK to Rwanda to have their claims determined there.
In May and June 2022, a group of asylum-seekers who arrived irregularly were told that their asylum claims were not going to be decided in the UK. Instead, they were to be removed to Rwanda to have their claims determined there, in accordance with Rwandan asylum law and procedure. Following the intervention of the European Court of Human Rights, no removals to Rwanda have taken place.
The appellants in AAA and others are asylum-seekers from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, Sudan, and Albania and the charity, Asylum Aid. They challenge both the lawfulness of the Rwanda policy in general, and the decisions made in each individual case. On 29 June 2023 a majority of the Court of Appeal ruled that the Government’s plan to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda was unlawful. The Supreme Court’s judgement on the appeal is expected in early 2024.
PANEL 1: INTERNATIONAL REFUGEE LAW AND SAFE THIRD COUNTRIES
Wednesday 22 November, 5pm via Zoom
Chair: Dr Catherine Briddick
Speakers: Professor Cathryn Costello (Full Professor of Global Refugee and Migration Law, Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin), Raza Husain KC (Barrister, Matrix Chambers), and Dr Madeline Garlick (Chief of the Protection Policy and Legal Advice Section, UNHCR)
PANEL 2: BORDERS, RACIALISATION, AND REFUGEE PROTECTION IN RWANDA
Wednesday 29 November, 5pm via Zoom
Chair: Dr Nicola Palmer
Speakers: Professor Michael Collyer (University of Sussex), Dr Frank Habineza MP (Member of Rwandan Parliament 2018-2023 and Founding President of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda), Dr Felix Ndahinda (Researcher and Consultant), and Dr Uttara Shahani (University of Oxford)
PANEL 3: THE ILLEGAL MIGRATION ACT 2023 FOLLOWING AAA AND OTHERS
Wednesday 24 January, 5pm
Chair: Dr Alpa Parmar
Speakers tbc
www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/international-refugee-law-and-safe-third-countries
