Rwanda policy stalled ‘for weeks’ in court
PRITI Patel’s Rwanda asylum policy is likely to be stalled for weeks because charities obtained fresh legal delays last night.
A court hearing due to begin next Tuesday has been put off until September after campaigners argued they needed more time to prepare.
Detention Action, which campaigns to stop foreign nationals being deported from the UK, announced it had secured a postponement to the judicial review at the High Court.
The first attempt at a removals flight to Rwanda under the deal had to be called off at the 11th hour on June 14, after the European Court of Human Rights intervened.
A Strasbourg judge used little-known powers to block the flight even though senior UK judges had refused to intervene.
The European court said no removals could take place until the legality of the Rwanda policy had been scrutinised by
British courts. Delays to the judicial review – in which campaigners are expected to argue the policy breaches the European Convention on Human Rights and the Refugee Convention – mean an interim injunction granted by Strasbourg will remain in force. Any further attempt at a removals flight to Kigali is unlikely to take place until mid-September – after the Conservative party leadership contest. The legal challenge is also being brought by the migrant charity Care 4 Calais and the Public and Commercial Services union, which represents thousands of Border Force staff.
The Home Secretary’s plan will see migrants arriving in the UK by ‘irregular’ routes – typically across the Channel – handed a one-way ticket to Rwanda to claim asylum there rather than here.
A spokesman for Detention Action tweeted: ‘The Divisional Court has agreed to adjourn our legal challenge against the Rwanda removals policy until September. This is a win for due process and fairness.
‘Individuals affected and our legal teams now have the time they need to prepare their substantial case.’
The migrant charity is run by Bella Sankey, who hopes to be a Labour candidate at the next general election.
Meanwhile, a group of at least 30 migrants launched a bid to cross the Channel yesterday, carrying an inflatable boat to the beach at Grand-Fort-Philippe near Dunkirk.
UK Border Force vessels later picked up 130 people and brought them into the port of Dover.