Late legal bids halt removal of 20 migrants

LAST-minuTe legal challenges have blocked the removal of 20 Channel migrants in the latest farcical example of how the asylum system is being exploited.

The Home Office said a charter flight to Germany took off with just seven failed asylum applicants on board, after lawyers for 20 others waited until the last possible moment to lodge new appeal claims.

Of the 20 whose removal could not take place, nine lodged human rights claims for the first time. eight said they had been victims of modern slavery, while the rest submitted other types of legal challenge.

All had come here from France across the Channel in dinghies and small boats.

under eu rules, asylum seekers must lodge their claims in the first safe country they reach – in this case Germany – and can be returned if they later apply in another member state.

The charter flight left for Germany on Tuesday with three iranians, two eritreans, an iraqi and a Kuwaiti on board.

it came less than a week after another charter flight – which cost the taxpayer at least £100,000 – left the uK for France with just one failed Channel migrant on board as similar last-minute legal challenges blocked 29 other removals.

Last- minute claims are allowed under the law but the Home Office has said the system is being manipulated by ‘activist lawyers’. Home Secretary Priti Patel said the latest debacle provided further evidence the asylum system is ‘ broken’.