CHARITY’S LAST-DITCH COURT BID TO STOP JETS
THE head of an asylum charity last night branded Priti Patel’s Rwanda deportation scheme “disgraceful” and vowed to stop it with a new 11th hour legal challenge.
Asylum Aid’s case will be heard at the High Court tomorrow, hours before the first flight taking 30 migrants to Kigali is due to take off.
It comes after a judge threw out a separate challenge by three other refugee organisations on Friday. Asylum Aid’s CEO Kerry Smith said: “We must stop flights to Rwanda from taking off until the lawfulness can be reviewed.
“We believe this government’s attempt to punish vulnerable people seeking asylum because it doesn’t approve of the way they reached our shores is unlawful.
“This disgraceful push to hastily remove people seeking protection to
Rwanda is another attempt to pass the buck on the UK’S responsibilities.”
The fresh “interim relief” injunction seeks to ground any flights until an application for a judicial review can be heard. It is being headed by a sevenwoman legal team.
Prince Charles is reportedly among the critics of the Home Office plan to send migrants abroad. In a private conversation, he is said to have branded it “appalling”. Lawyer Tessa Gregory said: “The highly truncated procedures give rise to a real risk that individuals may be removed to Rwanda without having had access to legal advice and courts.”
Asylum Aid, which represents people seeking protection from persecution in the UK, says Rwanda “is not presumed by statute to be generally safe”.