Rwanda Xmas flights fears for refugees
Fight to scrap Home Office plan
THE first UK asylum flight to Rwanda may take off before Christmas.
Campaigners will challenge the £120million Home Office scheme in the High Court tomorrow and protests against it will take place across the UK.
But if the legal move fails flights taking refugees 4,000 miles to the African nation may start soon.
Home Secretary Priti Patel’s scheme was thwarted in June when the first flight was grounded after the European Court of Human Rights intervened.
Care 4 Calais boss Clare Moseley fears the flights could happen quickly if the challenge fails and there is the political will.
A second hearing in the claim brought by charity Asylum
Aid will take place in October.
C4C said many asylum seekers have fled conflict and may become suffer trafficking or torture if sent to Rwanda.
Those intended for the first flight were terrified, said Ms Moseley. She said: “We spoke to people who tried to kill themselves, people on hunger strikes. It was horrific.”
She added: “We just can’t believe we have to face it again.”
In the past fortnight, C4C has found, the Home Office has issued notices of intent to send at least 14 asylum seekers, who crossed the Channel, to Rwanda but there may be many more. Court documents last month showed a Foreign Office official said torture and “even killings” are accepted in Rwanda.
In July it emerged the UK high commissioner to Rwanda warned in 2021 the country “has been accused of recruiting refugees to conduct armed operations in neighbouring countries”. C4C is calling for an “urgent” new approach to tackling illegal Channel crossings.
It said the Rwanda scheme has failed to deter 13,000 asylum seekers from making the journey since it was proposed.
Ms Moseley said issuing visas for safe passage, similar to those for Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion, would be more efficient and humane. “If they offered that to other nationalities where wars are equally savage – places like Syria, Yemen or Afghanistan – it would put people smugglers out of business,” she added.
“That would stop chaos in the channel without risking us becoming complicit in human rights violations by sending people to Rwanda.”