GARAS wants UK government to focus on tackling Asylum backlog
Director of Gloucestershire's refugee charity, Adele Owen, welcomed the Court of Appeal ruling the Rwanda policy as "unlawful."
Last updated 29th Jun 2023
Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers wants the UK government to focus on addressing the backlog.
By the end of 2022, the Asylum backlog stood at more than 150,000 cases.
Their Director, Adele Owens, welcomed the Court of Appeal's judgement to rule the government's Rwanda policy as "unlawful".
She added, "We are absolutely delighted and we hope this draws a line under this.
"Just on Tuesday, I was with a client who was asking about this because they were worried about being sent to Rwanda.
"All those people for whom this has been an overhanging threat can now rest a bit easier."
"The bottom line is they need to get on with dealing with the backlog"
"If they dealt with the backlog and we could see real movements of people who've been waiting a very, very long time for a decision.
"Then the cost to the country of the people in the system would reduce, because you could get people through the system; into work, into their lives, into settling, becoming a productive members of the society, and feeding back into the economy."
"Rigged against the British people" - says Home Secretary
In response to the Court of Appeal's judgement, Home Secretary Suella Braverman suggested the current system "rigged against the British people, it is as simple as that."
She went on to suggest she wasn't given up on the Rwanda policy.
"It's why we're changing the laws through our Illegal Migration Bill, it's why we're rolling out a ground-breaking partnership with Rwanda which we believe is lawful, with a country which we belie is safe."
"So, we need to change the system, we need to change our laws, that's how we're going to stop the boats."
No.10 Downing Street suggested that they were not going to be drawing a line under their Rwanda policy, adding "Clearly we now need to seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.
"I don't know the exact time that will take. I think the judges today made clear they would want that to be promptly, as would we.
"But this is an important element but it is one element of our work."