The UK's Supreme Court has ruled the Rwanda asylum policy is unlawful.
The government had said its plan to deport asylum seekers to east Africa and ban them from returning was needed to deter illegal small boat crossings.
But the Supreme Court ruled it is possible the Rwandan government would send refugees back to the country they had fled in the first place, BBC reports.
It said the policy breaches human rights laws by potentially leaving the people sent there open to that risk.
The UK's most senior court was asked to rule on an appeal by the government after the Court of Appeal ruled the policy was unlawful in June.
The legal case against the policy hinges on the principle of "non-refoulement" - that a person seeking asylum should not be returned to their country of origin if doing so would put them at risk of harm - which is established under both UK and international human rights law.
The Supreme Court agreed with the Court of Appeal decision, and said there are "substantial grounds" to believe people deported to Rwanda could then be sent to places they would be unsafe by the Rwandan government.
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