The UK-Rwanda asylum deal “sets a dangerous precedent globally,” the heads of the UN Refugee Agency, Filippo Grandi, and the UN Human Rights Office, Volker Türk, warned in a statement on Tuesday. The British parliament in the early hours of Tuesday approved a bill that will allow asylum seekers who entered the UK illegally to be sent to Rwanda. “This new legislation seriously undermines the UK’s asylum system and sets a dangerous precedent globally,” Türk stressed, highlighting that it externalizes refugee responsibilities, diminishes the capacity of UK courts, restricts access to asylum in the UK and curtails the scope of national and international human rights protections. “Refugee protection requires that all countries – not just those neighbouring crisis zones – uphold their obligations. This deal seeks to shift responsibility for refugee protection, undermining international cooperation and setting a worrying global precedent,” Grandi said in the joint press release. The new legislation is the third in a series of “increasingly restrictive laws that have eroded access to asylum in the UK since 2022, including by making it a criminal offence to arrive in the UK irregularly via a third country and seeking asylum or other forms of leave to remain,” the UN High Commissioners stressed. “If implemented,” the text “would pave the way for asylum seekers, including families with children, to be summarily sent to Rwanda to have their asylum claims processed, with no prospect of return,” they added. The legislation would also “drastically curtail asylum seekers’ ability to challenge or appeal decisions and would give the government express authority to disregard any interim measures of protection ordered by the European Court of Human Rights,” it said. Instead, the heads of the two UN agencies urged, the UK should “take practical steps to address irregular refugee and migrant flows, based on international cooperation and respect for international human rights law.” The Nationality and Borders (Rwanda) Bill was introduced alongside the UK-Rwanda Asylum Partnership Arrangement, despite the UK Supreme Court having ruled last year that the plan was unlawful under domestic and international law. The UK “can still take the right course of action and put in place measures to help address the factors that drive people to leave their homes and share responsibility for those in need of protection with European and other international partners,” the Commissioners added. A fair, efficient and well-governed migration and asylum system is essential for this purpose, ensuring access to protection for those who need it and enabling the return home of those who do not have a legal basis to remain, they concluded. Also Read: Rwanda: UN (also) asks London not to deport migrants (Portuguese version)