Belfast judge says parts of the UK's migrant deportation law shouldn't apply to Northern Ireland
A Belfast judge says that the United Kingdom's law to deport asylum-seekers shouldn't apply in Northern Ireland because parts of it violate human rights protections
By Brian Melley
Published - May 13, 2024, 03:21 PM ET
Last Updated - May 27, 2024, 12:58 AM EDT
LONDON (AP) — The United Kingdom's law to deport asylum-seekers shouldn't apply in Northern Ireland, because parts of it violate human rights protections, a Belfast judge ruled Monday.
The Illegal Migration Act was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights and undermines rights provided in the Good Friday peace agreement of 1998, High Court Justice Michael Humphreys said.
U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that the government would appeal the judgment.
The law is central to Sunak's contentious plan to deport some migrants to Rwanda, but it wasn't immediately clear what impact the ruling would have on that initiative.
