THE Tories’ Illegal Migration Bill was in tatters today after the Court of Appeal ruled plans to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda illegal.

Campaigners hailed its decision to overturn a previous High Court ruling which said the east African nation could be considered a safe country.

There were calls for Home Secretary Suella Braverman to resign in the latest setback in Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s flagship policy to “stop the boats” crossing the English Channel.

Charity Asylum Aid, which brought the case along with 10 individual asylum seekers, said the judges’ 2-1 majority ruling was “vindication of the importance of the rule of law and basic fairness when fundamental rights are at stake.”

Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett announced the majority decision in a short hearing in London.

Mr Sunak said the government will seek permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Sir Geoffrey Vos and Lord Justice Underhill ruled “deficiencies” in Rwanda’s asylum system meant asylum-seekers could be returned home and face persecution, even though they may have a good claim for asylum.

“In practice, Rwanda can only deliver on its good faith assurances if it has control mechanisms and systems in place to enable it to do so,” Sir Geoffrey said, adding that those mechanisms “have not yet been delivered” with insufficient evidence that they will be.

The legislation has suffered a string of defeats in the Lords after being passed by the Commons. 

It saw four defeats in the Lords on Wednesday after the Home Office’s own figures showed the government could spend £169,000 on every asylum-seeker forcibly removed to a third country such as Rwanda.

Nearly two in five people would need to be deterred from making the Channel crossing in small boats for the Bill to break even, its economic impact assessment added.

The Rwandan government responded to the judgement by saying it is “one of the safest countries in the world.”

Care4Calais chief executive officer Steve Smith said: “After today’s judgement, it’s time the government abandoned its brutal Rwanda policy and any alternative proposal to shirk the UK’s responsibility for people seeking asylum.”

Amnesty International UK chief executive Sacha Deshmukh said: “This judgement is very welcome, but it can’t undo the enormous suffering, harm and expense already caused by the government’s long and reckless pursuit of a patently unjust scheme.

“The government should now completely abandon the Rwanda deal — and any others like it — before doing any more damage to our international reputation or to the people threatened by such plans.”

Civil servants’ union PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “It is not immigration but political choices by this government that have driven down wages and starved public services of the resources they need to prosper.”

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper described the policy as “unworkable, unethical and extortionate, a costly and damaging distraction from the urgent action the government should be taking.”

And the Scottish Greens’ justice spokesperson Maggie Chapman MSP said: “If the Home Secretary Suella Braverman had any ounce of decency she would resign.”

Ms Braverman said in a statement: “The British people want to stop the boats, and so does this government.

“That’s what I am determined to deliver and I won’t take a backward step from that.”