LONDON, May 14, (AP): The United Kingdom's law to deport asylum-seekers shouldn't apply in Northern Ireland, because parts of it violate human rights protections, a Belfast judge ruled Monday.
The Illegal Migration Act was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights and undermines rights provided in the Good Friday peace agreement of 1998, High Court Justice Michael Humphreys said.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that the government would appeal the judgment.
The law is central to Sunak's contentious plan to deport some migrants to Rwanda, but it wasn't immediately clear what impact the ruling would have on that initiative.
While the prime minister’s office said the ruling wouldn’t derail or delay Rwanda deportations that the UK government says will begin in July, a lawyer whose client prevailed in bringing the case said the law wouldn't apply in Northern Ireland.
"This is a huge thorn in the government’s side," attorney Sinéad Marmion said. "There’s a huge obstacle in the way of them being able to actually implement that in Northern Ireland now.”
The law was created to deter thousands of migrants who risk their lives crossing the English Channel to claim asylum in the UK by creating the prospect that they would be sent to the east African country. It allows those who have arrived illegally to be deported to a "safe” third country where their claims can be processed.