Patel Slams ECHR’s ‘Very Surprising’ Intervention to Delay First UK Deportation Flight to Rwanda

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly argued that deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda would help stop smugglers from sending migrants across the Channel in unsafe vessels. Thus far this year, more than 10,500 migrants have reportedly crossed the Channel to enter the UK.

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel has voiced frustration over delay of the country’s first deportation flight on 14 June to take asylum seekers to Rwanda due to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)’s intervention, but stressed it would not stop the government from delivering on its pledge to tackle illegal immigration.

The Guardian cited an unnamed government source as saying that the delayed Rwanda flight, which allegedly cost £500,000 ($600,000), had already been paid for from the public purse. Downing Street declined to disclose how much it has paid in legal costs and how much it expects to pay for such flights in the future.

Migrants huddle together under blankets, brought to port by the UK Border Force after being picked up crossing the English Channel from France on April 14, 2022

© AFP 2023 / GLYN KIRK

She described the ECHR’s move as “very surprising”, adding that “these repeated legal barriers are similar to those we experience with other removals flights and many of those removed from this flight will be placed on the next”.

“We will not be deterred from doing the right thing and delivering our plans to control our nation's borders. Our legal team are reviewing every decision made on this flight and preparation for the next flight begins now,” Patel pointed out.

The same tone was struck by a Home Office source, who told the Mirror “It’s awful that despite repeated rulings from domestic judges, an out of hours judge at the European Court of Human Rights has stopped the relocation of illegal migrants.”

The remarks came after it was confirmed on Tuesday evening that two asylum seekers set to be sent to Rwanda had had their exit from the UK postponed following last-ditch intervention by the ECHR. A total of seven individuals were believed to be on board before the ECHR intervened.

The сourt’s ruling pertaining to one of the asylum seekers, an Iraqi man, envisages that he “should not be removed [from the UK] until the expiry of a period of three weeks following the delivery of the final domestic decision in the ongoing judicial review proceedings”. The High Court in London is due to hold this judicial review in July to decide on the legality of the scheme.

Explaining the decision, the court's president Lord Robert Reed, said there had been an "assurance" that, if the UK government's policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda is found to be unlawful, the ECHR would make efforts to help bring back any migrants flown to the east African nation.

UK Refugee Council chief executive Enver Solomon reacted by arguing that “the fact that the final flight could not take off is indicative of the inhumanity of the plan and the government's complete refusal to see the face behind the case”.

“Those threatened with removal are people who have escaped war, persecution, torture, and violence - many of whom have only been prevented from flying due to individual legal interventions declaring it a clear breach of their human rights to do so,” he asserted.

He urged the government to “immediately rethink [the plan] by having a grown-up conversation with France and the EU about sharing responsibility and look to operating an orderly, humane, and fair asylum system”.

Solomon was echoed by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who tweeted that “sending people fleeing violence to a country thousands of miles away was already cruel and callous. It's now potentially unlawful too”.

This followed Prime Minister Boris Johnson telling reporters that deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda – part of the government’s "New Plan for Immigration" - aims “to support safe and legal routes for people to come to the UK and to oppose the illegal and dangerous routes”.

The PM admitted that the programme “may take a while to get working properly, but that doesn't mean we're not going to keep going”.

When asked whether it would be necessary for the UK to pull out of the European Convention of Human Rights to restrict legal challenges, Johnson said, “Will it be necessary to change some laws to help us as we go along? It may very well be and all these options are under constant review.”

The London­-Kigali asylum pact, which was inked by Patel and Rwandan Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Vincent Birut on 14 April 2022, stipulates adult migrants who illegally arrived in the UK seeking sanctuary since January would be given a one-way ticket for the 4,000-mile (6,400-km) trip to the east African nation for processing and resettlement. Under the deal, those relocated to Rwanda will receive “support, including up to five years of education, vocational and skills training, as well as integration, accommodation, and healthcare, so that they can resettle and thrive.”

The measure is one of several announced by the UK government to tackle small boat crossings in the Channel, in line with “the New Plan for Immigration”. Other steps include plans to hand over operational control of the English Channel to the Royal Navy, and to ensure that the distribution of asylum seekers and resettled refugees is more even across the UK.

Figures collated by the BBC have meanwhile showed that more than 10,500 people have already made the crossings across the Channel to Britain this year, over twice as much as compared to the same period in 2021.