Illegal Migration Act appeal paused by NI court
DANIEL LEAL/GETTY IMAGESThe government's attempt to overturn a court ruling that found parts of the UK Illegal Migration Act were unlawful in Northern Ireland has been paused by judges.
The act was introduced by the last government in a bid to stop people coming to the UK in small boats by giving authorities the power to send migrants to Rwanda.
Last May, a High Court judge in Belfast ruled the act should not apply in Northern Ireland as it was incompatible with the post-Brexit Windsor Framework.
On Tuesday, the Court of Appeal was told the Labour government's new border laws to repeal the Rwanda legislation will render the case academic.
However, government lawyers resisted calls for its appeal to be thrown out.
Counsel for the Home Secretary claimed there could be a wider effect on asylum and immigration control within the UK if last year's ruling was not challenged.
The case had been listed for a full hearing at the Court of Appeal next month.
But that hearing is to be removed from its allocated date on the orders of Appeal Court judges, including Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan.
"The right course is to stay this matter given the imponderables that arise," she said.
"The court itself will keep this matter under review given expected legal developments in this area."
Law was challenged by 16-year-old boy
The previous Conservative government's Illegal Migration Act faced two separate legal challenges in Northern Ireland.
It was opposed by the NI Human Rights Commission and also by a 16-year-old asylum seeker who is staying at a children's home in Northern Ireland.
The boy, who is originally from Iran, arrived in the UK on a small boat last July after travelling to Britain alone in a bid to claim refugee status.
Lawyers acting for the boy - referred to in court only as JR 295 - said he was "terrified" of being sent back to Iran, claiming he would be killed or sent to prison.
Concerns were also raised that the act would encourage unaccompanied children in his position to run away once they turn 18, to avoid removal from the UK.
The Human Rights Commission argued the Illegal Migration Act breached the UK's obligations under the Windsor Framework to ensure no reduction in rights, safeguards or equality of opportunity safeguarded by the Good Friday Agreement.
The High Court judge agreed that several elements of the act would cause a "significant" diminution of the rights of asylum seekers in Northern Ireland.
At the time, the then prime minister Rishi Sunak said the Belfast judge's decision would not change the government's plan to send illegal migrants to Rwanda.
Sunak's government has since been replaced by Labour and lawyers for both the Human Rights Commission and the boy argued the appeal should be dismissed.
However, the current Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has maintained plans to appeal the May 2024 ruling.
The Labour government wants to determine the impact and scope of the Windsor Framework on asylum cases in Northern Ireland.
"I can't think of a topic that has raised more challenging legal issues for these courts than the application of the Windsor Framework and the consequences that will apply where it overrides domestic legislation," a government barrister said.
"These are some of the most groundbreaking and novel legal issues that these courts have grappled with in the last decade."