A first flight was canceled after a decision by the European Court of Human Rights.
A British court on Monday will rule on the Conservative government’s controversial plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda as illegal Channel crossings hit record highs. Conservatives have made tackling illegal immigration, which was a Brexit pledge, one of their priorities. But never before have so many migrants crossed the English Channel in their makeshift boats.
Since the beginning of the year, around 45,000 have arrived on the English coast, compared with 28,526 in 2021. And four migrants, including a teenager, died attempting the crossing on December 14. In April, Boris Johnson’s government struck a deal with Rwanda to return asylum seekers who had arrived illegally on British soil to that country. A policy designed to discourage illegal channel crossings. No deportation has taken place so far – a first flight scheduled for June was canceled following a decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) – but Rishi Sunak’s government is continuing this policy. The High Court will rule on appeals from migrant aid organizations such as Care4Calais, Detention Action and Asylum Aid, as well as the public sector union PCS, in London on Monday morning.
“Immoral and Illegal”
In September, before the hearing began, the general secretary of the PCS union, Mark Serwotka, judged the deportation of migrants to Rwanda to be “not only immoral but illegal”. He had called on the Interior Ministry to “give up its hostile attitude towards refugees”. For the Care4Calais association, this government project is “cruel”. “Refugees who have endured the horrors of war, torture and persecution now face the immense trauma of deportation and an uncertain future. It will bring them untold fear, agony and suffering.”
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At the hearing, government lawyers claimed that the agreement with Rwanda ensured that those who would be returned there would benefit from a “safe and efficient” refugee status determination process. At the beginning of October, the far-right Home Secretary Suella Braverman shared her “Christmas dream”: “(…) seeing a plane take off for Rwanda”. “I sincerely wish that we can implement the Rwanda program,” she said in an interview with The Times published on Saturday.
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According to her, her message to the migrants is “clear”: “If you (…) come here illegally on small boats and break our rules, you have no right to be accommodated here indefinitely at the expense of the taxpayer. There will be a very quick reply when you get here. Detention followed by deportation.” However, this project also clashes with international law, both the ECHR and the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention,” she told the Times.
It was “unforgivable if we don’t solve this migrant problem,” said the minister, while Labor was highest in opposition. “Part of the Brexit vote was about migration, controlling our borders and giving back sovereignty over who enters our country,” she admitted, before conceding a failure: the government “doesn’t have control over the borders.” regained”.