The government is "confident" its Rwanda deportation plan will go ahead despite the Supreme Court unanimously ruling it would breach international law, a Tory minister said on Monday.
Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury Gareth Davies said further negotiations with the Rwandan government had been ongoing for the last 15 months and had come "a long way",
The Supreme Court last week confirmed its "unanimous" decision to reject the government's plan to deport asylum seekers to the east African nation following 18 months of legal battles.
Judges said that those sent to the country would be at "real risk" of being returned home, whether their grounds to claim asylum were justified or not and that would breach international laws.
Asked why the UK does not try to find a different third country to send asylum seekers to Mr Davies told Sky News: "We do believe we've come a long way with the Rwandan government.
"We've been working very closely with them over the last 15 months.
"The Supreme Court were basing their judgment on evidence from 15 months ago that was supplied to the Court of Appeal.
"Since then we have been working very closely with the Rwandan government and we are confident that the Rwandan government can provide the assurances - that we can provide the assurances - to the Supreme Court that they have robust institutions in place to ensure there isn't this refoulement, which is essentially sending asylum seekers back to a country where they face persecution."
Rwanda has said it could take a maximum of 200 people who have tried to claim asylum in the UK.
Britain has already paid the Rwandan government £140million. However no one has actually been sent to the country after the first scheduled flight in June 2022 was cancelled following legal challenges.
Rishi Sunak has pledged to push on with the scheme and said he was determined to "end the merry-go-round" of legal challenges.
He has told MPs that the government was negotiating a new treaty with Rwanda that would protect against people being sent back to their home countries
The Prime Minister has also said he is prepared to change the law to ensure the policy goes ahead and introduce a legally binding treaty to define Rwanda as a "safe country".
Emergency legislation could be rushed through Parliament within “just a few days" in a desperate bid to revive the scheme James Cleverely, who replaced Suella Braverman as Home Secretary last week, said.
