Recommendation 45

The Government has presented the Rwanda Treaty to Parliament as an answer to the Supreme Court judgment and has asked Parliament, on the basis of the Treaty, to declare that Rwanda is a safe country. While the Treaty might in time provide the basis for such an assessment if it is rigorously implemented, as things stand the arrangements it provides for are incomplete. A significant number of further legal and practical steps are required under the treaty which will take time, in particular: (a) a new asylum law in Rwanda; (b) a system for ensuring that non-refoulement does not take place ; (c) a process for submitting individual complaints to the Monitoring Committee ; (d) the recruitment of a Monitoring Committee support team; (e) the appointment of independent experts to advise the asylum First Instance and Appeals Bodies; (f) the appointment of co-presidents of the Appeals Body; (g) the appointment of international judges; (h) training for international judges in Rwandan law and practice; (i) training for Rwandan officials dealing with asylum applicants; and (j) steps to ensure a sufficient number of trained legal advisers and interpreters are available. Moreover, the arrangements put in place by the Treaty need time to bed in to demonstrate that they operate in practice. The Home Office has been unable to offer any clear timeline for implementation, but we agree with the evidence we received that the Treaty is unlikely to change the position in Rwanda in the short to medium term. Members of Parliament should take that into account in considering the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill.