Migrants mount legal challenge to UK-Rwanda deportation plan

By JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Several asylum-seekers and refugee groups have begun a court challenge to the British government’s plan to send hundreds of migrants on a one-way trip to Rwanda. The claimants’ attorney, Raza Husain, argued Monday that the “high-profile and controversial” policy was unlawful. He said Rwanda was “an authoritarian one-party state” that “imprisons, tortures and murders” opponents. The governments of Britain and Rwanda signed a deal last year to send some migrants who arrive in the U.K. in small boats to Rwanda. Those granted asylum would stay in Rwanda rather than return to Britain. Human rights groups argue the plan is inhumane. In December, Britain’s High Court ruled the policy was legal, but a group of asylum-seekers was granted permission to appeal.