UK Signs New Asylum Agreement with Rwanda [1]
On December 5, 2023, UK Home Secretary James Cleverly signed an agreement [3] with Rwanda concerning asylum seekers. The agreement follows a recent decision [4] by the UK Supreme Court striking down a previous agreement with Rwanda blocking the government's policy of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda because, among other things, it concluded that Rwanda was not a safe third country and as such, returning asylum seekers to Rwanda would violate the principle of non-refoulement as contained in the Refugee Convention. As reported by JURIST [5], Secretary Cleverly noted that the new agreement "addresses all of the issues" that the Court had. The new agreement creates an appellate body made up of judges from different states and reinforces the Independent Monitoring Committee, which oversees the overall implementation of the agreement.