Flight deporting migrants from UK to Rwanda grounded by legal challenges

A last-minute injunction issued by the European Court of Human Rights and further decisions by an appeals court meant the first UK-organised flight meant to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda did not take off on Tuesday night.

A series of legal challenges meant that, by Tuesday morning, just seven people were booked to go on the flight, down from dozens originally. Charity Care4Calais, which has been challenging the deportations, said that at least five had indicators of previously being trafficked or tortured.

Earlier on Tuesday, four asylum seekers due to be on the flight had their bids to stop their deportations dismissed at the High Court in London, while a fifth man lost a bid to bring an appeal at the Supreme Court.

The scheme would see asylum seekers sent to Rwanda where they could then have their requests for international protection assessed and potentially be given refugee status. The British government hopes this will act as a deterrent, stopping refugees and asylum seekers from crossing the sea from France to the UK.

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The British government insisted they would push ahead with the scheme, saying it will disrupt the business model of smugglers, despite it being condemned by many refugee advocates and prominent figures, including the senior leadership of the Church of England who wrote that the policy should “shame” the UK as a nation.

“The shame is our own, because our Christian heritage should inspire us to treat asylum seekers with compassion, fairness and justice, as we have for centuries,” they wrote, in a letter signed by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, among others.

The deal between Rwanda and the UK was announced in April. It will see the UK pay £120 million (€138 million) to Rwanda, along with other costs to be confirmed. As this was agreed as a memorandum of understanding, it was not debated or scrutinised in parliament, leading the House of Lords to open a call for written evidence asking whether the scheme is consistent with the UK’s obligations under both domestic and international law.

Several asylum seekers who arrived in the UK over the last few months, and are therefore at risk of being sent to Rwanda, have been in touch with The Irish Times. They have all spent years seeking safety, and initially believed they had finally reached a country where they would be granted international protection and could restart their lives. “I am alive, I am in England now, God protected me,” one man said in March. “It was the worst journey. I lost too much [of my] mind and I was very hurt but I want to say thanks to God that I am alive.”

Protests continued in the UK throughout Tuesday, including outside the Royal Courts of Justice and the Home Office, while activists bombarded with complaints the airline that is supposed to fly the asylum seekers.

The head of the UN Refugee Agency, Filippo Grandi, denounced the policy as “all wrong”, saying the UK should not be “exporting its responsibility to another country”.

“For the cost of today’s deportation flight alone you could fund more than 235 years’ worth of asylum allowances. For the cost of paying Rwanda £120 million you could fund about 57,000 years worth,” tweeted Daniel Sohege, director of migrant-rights advocacy organisation Stand For All. That was based on the £40.85 (€47.04) allowance asylum seekers get each week, aside from their shared accommodation, Mr Sohege told The Irish Times. – Additional reporting: Reuters/PA