Government rejects concerns about 'migrants flocking to Northern Ireland' - as DUP calls for a British Isles immigration policy

DUP leader Gavin Robinson tabled an urgent question in the House of Commons on the Belfast High Court Rwanda judgement - and asked what the government is doing to pursue a UK and Ireland immigration approach.

A Tory minister laid out why the government believes that Monday’s High Court ruling was wrong and rejected concerns about “migrants flocking to Northern Ireland to avoid deportation”.

He said that “there is absolutely no benefit whatsoever of doing so” as the government is operationalising the policy nationally.

Tom Pursglove was speaking after a DUP urgent question on concerns about the ruling that a key part of the government’s flagship Rwanda policy won’t apply in Northern Ireland because of the Windsor Framework.

The minister of state for legal migration said the government would appeal the judgment and also attempted to draw a distinction between devolved and reserved matters – claiming that it was never the intent of the government for the protocol to cover immigration issues, despite no mention being made of that in the Windsor Framework.

The minister expressed “the government’s disappointment at this judgment”, adding “we continue to believe that our policy is lawful, that our approach is compatible with international law and specifically that the illegal migration act proposals are compatible” with the Windsor Framework.

He said the government “will take all steps to defend its position including through an appeal”.

Mr Pursglove said that the rights commitments covered in the deal had been “expanded” to cover issues like illegal migration – and that the judgment will not change their “operational plans” to send illegal migrants to Rwanda.

He further attempted to draw a distinction between the various laws which have brought the Rwanda policy into being and the Illegal Migration Act on which the judgment was made, saying that the High Court ruling on the illegal migration legislation did not apply to the other laws which make the scheme operable.

Appeals to NI courts over other pieces of Rwanda legislation are expected.

The government was responding to an urgent question in the House of Commons from DUP leader Gavin Robinson, who said that the issues raised in court on the Illegal Migration Act would also apply to a future challenge to the Safety of Rwanda Act.

“Though the government chose to dismiss the concerns that we outlined in this house – and our colleagues did in the other place – they had an opportunity to put this issue beyond doubt,” Mr Robinson said.

He highlighted an amendment he had tabled to deal with the issue and “to maintain the integrity of this country’s sovereign immigration policy” but said the government chose not to do so.

The East Belfast MP said the government had significantly impaired the uniformity of the UK’s immigration policy – and asked what it was doing to secure an immigration policy which covers all of the British Isles and assert parliament’s ‘sovereign will’ to protect the borders of the UK.

The minister said that immigration has always been a reserved matter that “has always been applied uniformly across the UK” and claimed the Windsor Framework has been “creatively” extended to matters such as migration.

This is despite the fact that the framework – which the government agreed – did not set any parameters to exclude reserved matters (areas under UK government control rather than Stormont).

Rights guaranteed under the Good Friday Agreement are to continue to apply here – and the judgment says that “full dynamic alignment with EU law is maintained, and the Northern Ireland courts will be obliged to interpret these rights accordingly”.

The High Court ruling also says that “the UK government undertook to incorporate the full sweep of ECHR rights into the law of NI and make them directly enforceable in the courts” under the Belfast Agreement – a situation which continues under the framework.

Sir Robert Buckland – chair of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee – asked the minister what the government was going to do about the situation where UK laws on immigration and legacy were stopped by Article 2 of the Windsor Framework.

The minister made no commitment other than to appeal the judgment.