As Hannah Arendt predicted nearly a century ago, the refugee crisis is the greatest test of the human rights paradigm. An estimated 103 million people have been forcibly displaced worldwide. ​​In response to increased “small-boat” refugees, the United Kingdom entered a deal with Rwanda in April 2022 to allow the British Home Office, the state immigration and security department, to relocate asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda. An emergency injunction from the European Court of Human Rights in June halted the first round of deportations, leading to a class-action lawsuit, R. v Secretary of State (2022), that challenged the policy. The Divisional Court subsequently ruled against the challenge in December, and individual appeals are currently underway. The case is complicated by complex refugee law, but procedural fairness during the asylum process underpins the key legal issues at stake as the prerequisite to upholding all other fundamental human rights. Under this framework, the Home Office can be held in breach of the asylum seekers’ right to non refoulement by failing to fulfill relevant procedural obligations and violating asylees’ due process rights.

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