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The British government will  next week try to persuade judges at the country’s top court to overturn a ruling which declared unlawful its plan to deport to Rwanda, asylum seekers who arrive in small boats across the Channel.

On October 9,  government lawyers will argue at the Supreme Court this ruling was wrong, while those representing migrants from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam and Sudan want the judges to conclude the scheme itself is flawed.

The stakes for UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak are high, as he has made dealing with immigration one of his five priorities.

“A government that doesn’t deliver on what you promised will always get punished. We need to get a grip on this issue,” Conservative lawmaker Brendan Clarke-Smith told Reuters at the party’s annual conference this week.

Sunak and his ministers argue that the Rwanda scheme, launched last year by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, would smash the business model of human traffickers, and deter people from the perilous cross-Channel journey in inflatable boats and dinghies. Six people drowned in August while 27 perished in November 2021.

The fate of the scheme now lies in the hands of five judges, including the Supreme Court’s President Robert Reed, who will begin hearing mainly technical legal argument over three days starting on Monday.