Boris Johnson’s “desperate and cruel” policy to deter asylum seekers was in disarray last night after a handful of migrants on the first expulsion flight to Rwanda obtained last-minute legal compensation.
The £ 500,000 taxpayer-funded flight was halted minutes before take-off following interventions by the European Court of Human Rights.
He arrived despite ministers insisting earlier that the flight would be carried out by very few on board.
Appeals are understood to have been granted by an out-of-hours ECHR judge as migrants went from a detention center near Heathrow to Boscombe Down in Wiltshire, from where a chartered plane to Rwanda.
With no route for the Home Office to appeal the decision, the flight was abandoned shortly before 10 p.m.
Interior Secretary Priti Patel insisted that the plan will continue, saying: “Many of those who have withdrawn from this flight will be placed on the next one. Our legal team is reviewing all decisions made on this flight. flight and now the preparation for the next flight begins.
“We will not be discouraged from doing the right thing and fulfilling our plans.”
Earlier, Interior Secretary Priti Patel’s lawyers were forced to confirm in court that Britain would bring people from Rwanda if the policy was declared illegal in a judicial review next month.
Ministers have previously stated that the policy would deter migrants from embarking on dangerous boat trips on one of the busiest sea routes in the world, and flights from Rwanda are being made public in Calais and other boarding points. And Boris Johnson boasted that the policy, described as “immoral” by the bishops of the Church of England, could see tens of thousands sent to the African country.
The Refugee Council said the government’s claims of a deterrent effect “have already been refuted” by the figures that continue to travel through the Canal.
“We always knew that these measures would do little to prevent desperate people from making dangerous trips to the UK, because they do absolutely nothing to address the reasons why people arrive,” said CEO Enver Solomon.
Zoe Gardner, head of the Joint Immigrant Welfare Council (JCWI), told The Independent that there was no evidence that Rwanda’s “desperate and cruel” flights were holding back the flow of ships.
“This will not make the refugees disappear,” he said. “We have told this government over and over again what would prevent dangerous crossings and save lives, and these are safe routes for people seeking refuge here.”
Some 250 people are believed to have arrived in the UK on Tuesday, as London courts rejected the requests of four migrants – three Iranian and one from Vietnam – to stop their deportation.
But a precautionary measure at 5pm by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) saw a 50-year-old Iraqi man removed from the deportation list just hours before boarding a Boeing 767 plane. 200 seats in Boscombe Down.
The ECHR said medical examinations of the man, who left Iraq in April and crossed the Channel in a small boat before seeking asylum on May 17, showed signs of possible torture. His ruling took into account the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ assessment that asylum seekers do not have access to “fair and efficient procedures for determining refugee status”. in Rwanda and that there is no legally required mechanism to guarantee their return to the United Kingdom. .
Similar precautionary measures were later granted to the remaining deportees until none were left.
Johnson hinted that he might be willing to pull the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights to ensure the continued operation of the plan.
Asked if the controversy was on the table, he replied: “Will we need to change some laws that will help us as we move forward? That may be the case and all of these options are under constant review. “
The Prime Minister also provoked fury in the legal profession by accusing those fighting deportations of “encouraging the work of criminal gangs” of human traffickers.
In a joint statement, the Bar Council and the Bar Association responded: “It is misleading and dangerous for the Prime Minister to suggest that lawyers who present such legal challenges are doing anything other than their own. work and comply with the law.
“Anyone at risk of a life-changing order has the right to challenge their legality with the assistance of a lawyer, who has a duty to advise their client on their rights.”
And Johnson was criticized for the estimated £ 80,000 per head bill for charter flights, with former international development secretary Andrew Mitchell telling The Independent: “It would be cheaper to put them in the Ritz for a year and a half. – Boat with a bottle of champagne every noon.
When Anglican bishops signed a joint letter denouncing the plan, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said: “Deporting asylum seekers should embarrass us as a nation.”
And Yvette Cooper, the shadow secretary of the Interior, said the eviction program was “unviable, unethical, exorbitantly expensive and runs the risk of worsening smuggling and trafficking.
“The government has ended up targeting torture victims instead of trafficking gangs,” Ms Cooper said.
The number of weekly arrivals detected by the Ministry of Defense (MOD) has dropped from 1,071 recorded at the time the policy was announced on April 14 to between 190 and 762 in subsequent weeks.
The latest official figures saw the arrival of 138 on Monday, while BBC journalists on the scene estimated that around 250 were helped to arrive on Tuesday.
Fluctuations in the figures are heavily influenced by factors such as climate and sea conditions, and there is little evidence of a return to the levels observed as recently as 2019, when less than 2,000 made the crossing in a year.
Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration David Neal told lawmakers last week that he had seen no sign that the number of arrivals would be reduced by the plan, while top Interior Minister Matthew Rycroft told Ms Patel in a letter in April that it was “evidence of a deterrent effect”. it is highly uncertain. “
Up to 130 people were initially told they could be on Rwanda’s inaugural flight. Interior Ministry sources said work is being done to overcome the legal barriers to moving, and that many of those who avoided today’s flight are expected to be in the next few weeks.
It is understood that many of those involved are in custody and, if the policy survives judicial review, more planes are expected to be hired to take them to Rwanda as their cases are processed.
At a news conference in Kigali, Rwandan government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo said they expected to receive “thousands” of deportees during the lifetime of the partnership signed with Britain.
Challenged by the cost of the year for the taxpayer, a UK government source said the asylum system bill currently stands at £ 1.5bn a year, with £ 5m invested each week in migrant housing.
“Savings for the taxpayer will come,” the source said. “With people dying and our borders insecure, how much do people say it’s too much to deter these crossings?”
Clare Moseley, founder of the charity Care4Calais, which is initiating legal review proceedings with Detention Action and the Union of Public and Commercial Services (PCS), described the dismissals as “absolutely shocking and horrific” and said that the planned flight series would be “costly and inefficient.”
“You have to question motivation,” Ms. Moseley said. “It’s not because they want to stop human traffickers and save lives, because if they wanted to, they would open safer routes for refugees.”
And Graeme McGregor of Detention Action said it was “absolutely absurd to send a handful of people to Rwanda to try to scare people away.”