LONDON: A British court ruled Thursday that a UK government plan to send asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda is unlawful, delivering a blow to the Conservative administration’s pledge to stop migrants making risky journeys across the English Channel.
In a split two-to-one ruling, three Court of Appeal judges said Rwanda could not be considered a “safe third country” where migrants from any country could be sent.
But the judges said that a policy of deporting asylum seekers to another country deemed safe was not in itself illegal, and the government said it would challenge the ruling at the UK Supreme Court. It has until July 6 to lodge an appeal.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that “while I respect the court I fundamentally disagree with their conclusions.”
Sunak has pledged to “stop the boats” — a reference to the overcrowded dinghies and other small craft that make the journey from northern France carrying migrants who hope to live in the UK More than 45,000 people arrived in Britain across the Channel in 2022, and several died in the attempt.
The UK and Rwandan governments agreed more than a year ago that some migrants who arrive in the UK as stowaways or in small boats would be sent to Rwanda, where their asylum claims would be processed. Those granted asylum would stay in the East African country rather than return to Britain.
The UK government argues that the policy will smash the business model of criminal gangs that ferry migrants on hazardous journeys across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who is known for her hard-line rhetoric about migrants, said after the ruling that the existing asylum system “incentivizes mass flows of economic migration into Europe, lining the pockets of people smugglers and turning our seas into graveyards, all in the name of a phony humanitarianism.”
Human rights groups say it is immoral and inhumane to send people more than 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) to a country they don’t want to live in, and argue that most Channel migrants are desperate people who have no authorized way to come to the UK They also cite Rwanda’s poor human rights record, including allegations of torture and killings of government opponents.
Yasmine Ahmed, UK director of Human Rights Watch, welcomed the verdict and urged Braverman to “abandon this unworkable and unethical fever dream of a policy and focus her efforts on fixing our broken and neglected migration system.”
Britain has already paid Rwanda 140 million pounds ($170 million) under the deal, but no one has yet been deported there.
Britain’s High Court ruled in December that the policy is legal and doesn’t breach Britain’s obligations under the UN Refugee Convention or other international agreements.
But the court allowed a group of claimants, who include asylum-seekers from Iraq, Iran and Syria facing deportation under the government plan, to challenge that decision on issues including whether the plan is “systemically unfair” and whether asylum-seekers would be safe in Rwanda.
In a partial victory for the government, the appeals court ruled Thursday that the UK’s international obligations did not rule out removing asylum-seekers to a safe third country.
But two of the three ruled Rwanda was not safe because its asylum system had “serious deficiencies.” They said asylum seekers “would face a real risk of being returned to their countries of origin,” where they could be mistreated.
Lord Chief Justice Ian Burnett, the most senior judge in England and Wales, disagreed with his two colleagues. He said assurances given by the Rwandan government were enough to ensure the migrants would be safe.
Rwanda insisted the nation is “one of the safest countries in the world.”
“As a society, and as a government, we have built a safe, secure, dignified environment, in which migrants and refugees have equal rights and opportunities as Rwandans,” said government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo. “Everyone relocated here under this partnership will benefit from this.”
However, Rwanda opposition leader Frank Habineza said Britain should not seek to foist its responsibilities on refugees.
“The UK is a bigger country than Rwanda, huge resources, unlike impoverished Rwanda,” he said. “Sending migrants to Rwanda, the UK will be relinquishing responsibility of protecting those running to the UK for safety.”
Even if the plan is ultimately ruled legal, it’s unclear how many people could be sent to Rwanda. The government’s own assessment acknowledges it would be extremely expensive, coming in at an estimated 169,000 pounds ($214,000) per person.
But it is doubling down on the idea, drafting legislation barring anyone who arrives in the UK in small boats or by other unauthorized means from applying for asylum. If passed, the bill would compel the government to detain all such arrivals and deport them to their homeland or a safe third country.
Refugee law expert David Cantor said the ruling would “send a ripple effect more widely through this idea of sending asylum seekers to third countries.”
“Any country that might wish to enter into this kind of memorandum with the UK government, as Rwanda did, would equally be quite likely to be a government which had weak asylum procedures, (where) there were questions about safety in the country,” said Cantor, director of the Refugee Law Initiative at the University of London’s School of Advanced Study.
He said the UK “has had negotiations with many countries which do have robust court structures and asylum procedures, and there’s very little willingness there to contemplate these sorts of schemes.”
UK government vows to challenge court ruling that its plan to send migrants to Rwanda is unlawful
https://arab.news/m9pfn
UK government vows to challenge court ruling that its plan to send migrants to Rwanda is unlawful
- In a split two-to-one ruling, three Court of Appeal judges said Rwanda could not be considered a “safe third country”
Putin visits Kursk region for first time since Ukraine attacked it
Putin visited a control center used by Russian forces and heard a report from Valery Gerasimov, head of the Russian General Staff, who told him that Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region were now surrounded.
Putin said Russian forces should completely liberate the region from the Ukrainian troops as soon as possible, the news agencies reported.
He was shown on Russian television visiting the troops involved in the counteroffensive in the Kursk region.
Putin was shown seated wearing a camouflage-print shirt in a room listening to a report by Gerasimov. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies that Putin had visited one of the command points for the Kursk group of troops.
Trump says negotiators headed to Russia ‘right now’
- “People are going to Russia right now as we speak. And hopefully we can get a ceasefire from Russia,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that negotiators were headed to Russia “right now” for talks on a possible ceasefire with Ukraine, after Kyiv agreed to a 30-day truce.
Trump did not give further details on the negotiating team.
“People are going to Russia right now as we speak. And hopefully we can get a ceasefire from Russia,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with Ireland’s prime minister.
“And if we do, I think that would be 80 percent of the way to getting this horrible bloodbath finished.”
Vice President JD Vance, who was also in the meeting, added that there were “conversations that are happening on the phone and in person with some of our representatives over the next couple of days.”
Trump would not say when he would next speak to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, but added that “I hope he’s going to have a ceasefire” and that there had been “positive messages” from Moscow.
“It’s up to Russia now,” said Trump.
Trump was coy about pressuring Moscow to agree to a truce, saying he could slap it with “devastating” sanctions but adding that “I hope that’s not going to be necessary.”
“I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia. I don’t want to do that because I want to get peace,” Trump added.
His comments come less than two weeks after an explosive row between Trump, Vance and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office in front of television cameras.
Trump halted military aid after the argument to pressure Kyiv, which agreed to a US-proposed plan for a 30-day ceasefire at talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
French far-right leader to make unprecedented Israel visit
- Also attending will be Bardella’s fellow European Parliament MP Marion Marechal
- “Jordan Bardella will deliver a speech on the rise of anti-Semitism in France since October 7,” a source said
PARIS: Jordan Bardella, the leader of France’s far-right National Rally (RN) party, is to make an unprecedented visit to Israel later this month to attend a conference on fighting anti-Semitism, a party source said on Wednesday.
Also attending will be Bardella’s fellow European Parliament MP Marion Marechal, the niece of Marine Le Pen, who leads a separate far-right movement, she told AFP.
They are both expected on March 26 and 27 in Jerusalem on invitation of the Israeli government to address the conference.
“Jordan Bardella will deliver a speech on the rise of anti-Semitism in France since October 7,” a source close to Bardella told AFP, confirming a report in newspaper Le Figaro.
Since the attack led by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, the RN has sought to present itself as a bulwark against anti-Semitism.
The party was co-founded as the National Front (FN) by Marine Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died earlier this year and was known for his anti-Semitic remarks.
Marine Le Pen has moved emphatically to distance the movement from her father’s legacy, renaming the party the RN and seeking to make it electable.
Marine Le Pen now leads the RN MPs in the French parliament and is eager to stand again in 2027 presidential elections.
Jean-Marie Le Pen declared in 1987 that the Nazi gas chambers used to exterminate Jews are “just a detail in the history of World War II.”
In an invitation letter, the Israeli government said that “this major conference will bring together political leaders, international organizations, special envoys, and prominent figures from around the world to discuss and address the global threat of modern anti-Semitism.”
Israel is also planning “special visits” for the two MEPs, “to Israel’s southern and northern borders to better understand the geopolitical landscape.”
This is the first time that figures from the French far right have been invited to this type of conference.
In November 2023, President Emmanuel Macron attacked the RN, without naming it, accusing the movement of “claiming to support our compatriots of Jewish faith by confusing the rejection of Muslims with support for Jews.”
Columbia grad student’s detention will stretch on as lawyers spar over Trump’s plan to deport him
- After Khalil’s Manhattan arrest, Judge Jesse M. Furman ordered that the 30-year-old not be deported while the court considers a legal challenge brought by his lawyers
- One of Khalil’s lawyers, Ramzi Kassem, told the judge that Khalil was “identified, targeted and detained” because of his advocacy for Palestinian rights and his protected speech
NEW YORK: Mahmoud Khalil will remain detained in Louisiana until at least next week following an initial court hearing in New York on Wednesday over the Trump administration’s plans to deport the Columbia University graduate student for his role in campus protests against Israel.
The brief hearing, which focused on thorny jurisdictional issues, drew hundreds of demonstrators to the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan to denounce the Saturday arrest of Khalil, a permanent US resident who is married to an American citizen. Khalil, 30, didn’t attend — after initially being held in New Jersey, he was moved to an immigration detention center in Louisiana.
After Khalil’s Manhattan arrest, Judge Jesse M. Furman ordered that the 30-year-old not be deported while the court considers a legal challenge brought by his lawyers, who want Khalil returned to New York and released under supervision.
During Wednesday’s hearing, attorney Brandon Waterman argued on behalf of the Justice Department that the venue for the deportation fight should be moved from New York City to Louisiana or New Jersey because those are the locations where Khalil has been held.
One of Khalil’s lawyers, Ramzi Kassem, told the judge that Khalil was “identified, targeted and detained” because of his advocacy for Palestinian rights and his protected speech. He said Khalil has no criminal convictions, but “for some reason, is being detained.”
Kassem also told Furman that Khalil’s legal team hasn’t been able to have a single attorney-client-protected phone call with him.
Furman ordered that the lawyers be allowed to speak with him by phone at least once on Wednesday and Thursday. Calling the legal issues “important and weighty,” the judge also directed the two sides to submit a joint letter on Friday describing when they propose to submit written arguments over the legal issues raised by Khalil’s detention.
Kassem said Khalil’s lawyers would update their lawsuit on Thursday.
Khalil’s arrest has sparked protests in New York and other US cities. Actor Susan Sarandon emerged from the courthouse and told reporters that “no matter where you stand on genocide, freedom of speech ... is a right that we all have.” She added: ”And this is a turning point in the history and the freedom of this country.”
Some of Khalil’s supporters, many of them wearing a keffiyeh and mask, attended the hearing. Hundreds more demonstrated outside the courthouse, beating drums, waving Palestinian flags and chanting for Khalil’s release. The raucous crowd grew quiet, though, to hear Kassem speak.
“As we tried to make clear in court today, what happened to Mahmoud Khalil is nothing short of extraordinary and shocking and outrageous,” Kassem told the crowd. “It should outrage anybody who believes that speech should be free in the United States of America.”
Kassem said the legal grounds cited by the government to detain Khalil were “vague” and “rarely used,” masking the true intent: “retaliation and punishment for the exercise of free speech.”
Columbia became the center of a US pro-Palestinian protest movement that swept across college campuses nationwide last year and led to more than 2,000 arrests.
Khalil, whose wife is pregnant with their first child, finished his requirements for a Columbia master’s degree in December. Born in Syria, he is a grandson of Palestinians who were forced to leave their homeland, his lawyers said in a legal filing.
President Donald Trump heralded Khalil’s arrest as the first “of many to come,” vowing on social media to deport students he described as engaging in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity.”
During a stopover in Ireland while headed from Saudi Arabia to a meeting of the G7 foreign ministers in Canada, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that Khalil’s case is “not about free speech.”
“This is about people that don’t have a right to be in the United States to begin with. No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card,” Rubio said.
Khalil, who acted as a spokesperson for Columbia protesters, hasn’t been charged with a crime. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that the administration moved to deport him under a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that gives the secretary of state the power to deport a noncitizen on foreign policy grounds.
Civil rights groups and Khalil’s attorneys say the government is unconstitutionally using its immigration control powers to stop him from speaking out.
US Jewish groups and leaders and organizations have been divided in their response to Khalili’s detention.
Among those welcoming the move was the Anti-Defamation League, which said it hopes it serves as a “deterrent.”
“We appreciate the Trump Administration’s broad, bold set of efforts to counter campus antisemitism — and this action further illustrates that resolve by holding alleged perpetrators responsible for their actions,” the ADL said on social media.
Amy Spitalnick, CEO of Jewish Council for Public Affairs, decried Khalil’s detention.
The Trump administration “is exploiting real concerns about antisemitism to undercut democracy: from gutting education funding to deporting students to attacking diversity, equity, & inclusion,” she wrote on Bluesky. “As we’ve repeatedly said: this makes Jews — & so many others — less safe.”
Pakistan army says operation against militants who hijacked train has ended, 21 hostages killed
- Separatist Balochistan Liberation Army outfit stormed train in southwest Pakistan on Tuesday, held over 400 passengers hostage
- Pakistan military spokesperson says security forces killed 33 militants, no passengers harmed during final clearance operation
QUETTA: A military operation against militants who hijacked a train in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan a day earlier ended on Wednesday, army spokesperson General Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry said, with 21 hostages killed.
The separatist Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) bombed part of a railway track and stormed the Quetta-Peshawar-bound Jaffar Express on Tuesday afternoon in Mushkaaf, an area in the mountainous Bolan range of Balochistan. The group said on Tuesday night it was holding 214 people as hostages, including military, police and intelligence officials, while a security official said 190 passengers had been rescued by Wednesday afternoon.
Balochistan province has been the site of a low-level separatist insurgency for decades, with separatist groups accusing the government of stripping the province’s natural resources and leaving its people mired in poverty. They say security forces routinely abduct, torture, and execute ethnic Baloch, allegations echoed by human rights campaigners. Government officials and security forces strongly deny violating human rights and say they are uplifting the province through development projects, including multi-billion-dollar schemes funded by China.
“Firstly, our forces’ marksmen sent the suicide bombers to hell and in phases cleared all the bogies there to send all terrorists to hell,” Chaudhry told Dunya News, a private TV channel, adding that 33 militants had been killed in the operation, and no passengers were harmed during the final clearance operation by security forces.
“However, before this operation commenced, these heathen terrorists had already taken 21 lives,” the military spokesperson said.
He said a rescue operation had been launched immediately after the train was attacked on Tuesday, disclosing that the army, air force, paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) force and Special Services Group (SSG) personnel took part in the mission.
Four paramilitary FC soldiers had been killed in the operation, while no army men had been harmed, Chaudhry added.
Passengers who were held hostage and had fled to surrounding areas during the operation were also being accounted for, the military spokesman said.
ARMY TAKES CONTROL OF RAILWAY STATION
Earlier on Wednesday afternoon, an Arab News eyewitness described seeing dozens of empty coffins being brought to the Quetta Railway Station in the provincial capital. He said the station was overrun with army personnel while dozens of family members of hostages had arrived in search of their loved ones. These included the family of Amjad Yasin, the 50-year-old driver of the Jaffar Express, who officials said on Tuesday had been killed in the assault.
“We have been contacting railway officials since yesterday, but no one is telling the truth,” Amir Yasin, the driver’s younger brother, told Arab News.
“There are multiple reports coming about my brother’s death but how can we believe it until we see his body?”
Muhammad Abid, a railway employee who was on the train and arrived at Mach Station, described the attack as the most “horrific day” of his life.
“We were sitting in one of the compartments of Jaffar Express when a powerful explosion targeted the train and intense firing started,” he told Arab News over the phone.
“We hid in the washrooms with other passengers, but then armed men came in and off boarded us from the train,” he added. “After checking our identity cards, they asked us to run on the track. My life flashed before my eyes when I saw dozens of armed men standing on the railway track.”
Muhammad Ashraf, a 68-year-old passenger traveling to Hafizabad in Punjab to meet his daughter, said that when the train departed from Paneer Railway Station, he heard an explosion about seven to eight kilometers into the journey, followed by intense gunfire, saying many people had been killed and injured.
“Armed men boarded the train and asked everyone to leave the train or prepare to die,” he told Arab News, adding that the militants made the passengers walk on the tracks for three and a half hours on foot.
Ashraf said the militants had detained over 200 passengers, in his rough estimate.
