MINISTERS had been repeatedly warned about Rwanda’s poor refugee and human rights record, including cases of asylum-seekers being “illegally deported” to Afghanistan, the High Court heard today.

Asylum-seekers and campaigners are challenging Home Office plans to deport refugees on a one-way ticket to the east African nation. 

In written submissions, lawyers highlighted alarming evidence from the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR of refugees being turned away at Rwanda’s airports and returned to their country of origin, a crime known as refoulement. 

It noted that UNHCR had informed the Home Office at a meeting in April this year of the cases of two Afghan nationals who were denied access to asylum and deported after arriving at Kigali airport in March 2022. 

The refugee agency said that one was affiliated with international forces and both appeared to have very strong protection claims. 

Despite this, and intervention from UNHCR, the two were put on flights out of the country, resulting in them later being removed back to Afghanistan.

UNHCR has also identified cases where Libyan, Syrian and a Yemeni nationals were denied access to asylum, as well as several people who originate from a country with close diplomatic ties to Rwanda. 

These findings were omitted from the Home Office’s published policy documents and the existence of the meeting itself was not made public until June - two months later - according to court documents.

In response, the Rwandan government has claimed it has “never sent back from its frontiers any asylum-seeker to the country of origin or to another country,” but the UNHCR has argued that this is “simply false,” the court heard. 

Raza Husain QC, representing campaigners, told the court that the evidence suggests these cases are not “missteps” but point to a “much deeper problem,” and could have implications for asylum-seekers deported under the British-Rwanda deal.

Afghans and Syrian asylum-seekers are among those who have been targeted by the Home Office for deportation to Rwanda. 

Earlier in the hearing, Mr Husain described Rwanda as a “one-party authoritarian state that repeatedly imprisons, tortures and murders those it thinks are political opponents.” 

“Those who protest or dissent from government directives, including refugees, are faced with police violence,” he continued.

“All of those observations are drawn from our own government officials.”

Recently disclosed documents also revealed yesterday that a Foreign Office official had told the Home Office that the Rwandan government “regularly targets” refugees that have fled the country. 

Rwanda has carried out extrajudicial killings as a “tried and tested means of dealing with opponents — both at home and abroad,” the official said. 

The legal case is being brought by several asylum-seekers alongside campaign groups Care4Calais and Detention Action as well as civil servants’ union PCS.

The Home Office is defending the claims, with lawyers arguing that everyone sent there will have a “safe and effective” refugee status determination procedure.

Outside the court, PCS head of bargaining Paul O’Connor told the Star that the union’s members in the Home Office “have no desire to implement this policy.” 

“They think it’s unlawful, they think it’s morally reprehensible,” he said.  

“It’s a fairly powerful statement when you have the organisation representing workers tasked with carrying out the policy, standing shoulder to shoulder with refugee organisations who represent people subjected to the policy. 

“It just demonstrates the wealth and breath of opposition to what is being proposed and the inhumanity of it all.”

Rallies were also held outside the court on Monday, with speakers including Labour MPs and refugee rights campaigners. 

Addressing the demo, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “This deal with Rwanda is something I am more than suspicious of … because of the amount of money involved and because of the quite credible reports by the UN and others of Rwanda’s interference in the Congo as well as what is going on in neighbouring countries.”

Highlighting the impact of the policy on asylum-seekers’ mental health and wellbeing, Refugee Council chief executive Enver Solomon said many refugees have been left “deeply traumatised” by the plans. 

Labour MP Beth Winter described the policy as “barbaric, abhorrent and immoral,” while Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP branded it “state-sanctioned trafficking,” and “a waste of millions and millions of pounds.”

The five-day hearing continues today.