U.K. top court upholds a controversial plan to send migrants to Rwanda

A pilot gestures from the grounded EC-LZO Boeing 767 flight, initially meant to deport Rwandan asylum-seekers, at Boscombe Down Air Base in Boscombe Down, England, on June 14. The flight taking asylum-seekers from the U.K. to Rwanda was grounded at the last minute, after the intervention of the European Court of Human Rights. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

LONDON — The High Court in London issued a long-awaited ruling Monday that found a controversial British immigration policy was lawful, months after the U.K. government first introduced the plan to deport hundreds of potential asylum-seekers to Rwanda, where their claims would be heard and decided by Rwandan authorities.

The court found that the plan did not breach Britain's legal obligations under domestic legislation and the United Nations Refugee Convention, but that the country's interior minister must in the future consider carefully the circumstances of individual asylum claimants if their cases are to be heard in Rwanda rather than the U.K.