Judges urged to block Home Office plans to send refugees to Rwanda

Court of appeal hears Rwanda plan will expose refugees to ‘serious harm’ and is incompatible with UK’s international obligations

Senior judges have been urged to block government plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

In a four-day hearing at the court of appeal, which concluded on Thursday, the lord chief justice, Lord Burnett, master of the rolls, Sir Geoffrey Vos, and Lord Justice Underhill, deputy president of the civil division of the appeal court, heard an appeal against a high court ruling last December that it was lawful to send some asylum seekers, including small boat arrivals, to Rwanda to have their claims processed rather than dealing with their applications for sanctuary in the UK.