‘Well-camouflaged dictatorship’: Rwandans fear for safety while dirty tricks campaign undermines critics

Rwandan refugees’ persecution fears are ‘well-founded’, claim UK government letters seen by the Observer, which contradict its legal case that the country is safe. Illustration: Observer Design

Last October, as the five law lords in the supreme court were hearing the government’s plea that it was safe to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, an official in the Home Office was about to press the button on a decision whether to allow a refugee to make a home in Britain.

The man had fled his home country fearing he and his family were at serious risk of harm. The Home Office agreed that he was in danger of persecution and granted him safe refuge in the UK.