Belfast judge says parts of the UK’s migrant deportation law shouldn’t apply to Northern Ireland

LONDON — The United Kingdom’s law to deport asylum-seekers shouldn’t apply in Northern Ireland, because parts of it violate human rights protections, a Belfast judge ruled Monday. While the prime minister’s office said the ruling wouldn’t derail or delay Rwanda deportations that the U.K. government says will begin in July, a lawyer whose client prevailed in bringing the case said the law wouldn’t apply in Northern Ireland. “There’s a huge obstacle in the way of them being able to actually implement that in Northern Ireland now.” The law was created to deter thousands of migrants who risk their lives crossing the English Channel to claim asylum in the U.K. by creating the prospect that they would be sent to the east African country. Sunak said that the Good Friday agreement wasn’t intended to be “expanded to cover issues like illegal migration.” The law was challenged by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and a 16-year-old Iranian boy who crossed the English Channel last year without any parents and claimed asylum in the U.K.