LONDON — After an appeals court rejected the plan, the British government is allowing it to proceed with its plan to deport asylum seekers of different nationalities to Rwanda.
Monday’s decision was met with criticism from both home and abroad. The United Nations’ top refugee official stated that the plan sets a dangerous precedent to migrants fleeing persecution and war.
The three-justice Court of Appeal London panel ruled in Boris Johnson’s favor and the Prime Minister announced that the first deportation flight would proceed as planned on Tuesday evening.
Since April, Johnson’s plan was announced by Johnson as a way to discourage people from risking lives to get to Britain in leaking inflatable boats. Migrant advocacy organizations have been attacking the policy as illegal and inhumane.
The program would force migrants deported to Rwanda to seek asylum. Not Britain. The U.K. provided $158 million upfront to Rwanda and will continue to make additional payments depending on the number deported.
Filippo Grandi (the U.N. high-commissar for refugees) slammed the policy and called it “all wrong.”
Grandi stated that if the British government truly wants to protect lives, it should partner with other countries to target people smugglers, provide safe routes for asylum seekers and not just smuggle migrants to other countries.
He said that the precedent this sets is “catastrophic” for a concept like asylum that must be shared.
Monday’s ruling focused on whether temporary injunctions should be issued to prevent deportation flights from Rwanda, while a case challenging its legality moves through the courts.
Additional legal challenges are underway.
Although a precedent is at stake here, the numbers of those directly affected by these cases has been gradually whittled as lawyers challenge each deportation order. Care4Calais stated that all but eight of the 31 migrants who had been told they would fly to Rwanda were now on their way.
These court cases were made amid bitter political debates over Johnson’s deportation plan.
The Church of England leadership has joined the opposition and sent a joint letter to Times of London, which will be published Tuesday.
The letter stated that “Whether or not there is a first deportation flight leaving Britain for Rwanda today, this policy should shame US as a nation.” “The shame is ours, because our Christian heritage should encourage us to treat asylum seekers with compassion and fairness, just as we have done for centuries.”
Johnson supported the policy.
He stated, “I believe that most people are able to see that criminal gangs… need to stop,”. “This model must be discredited.
He also dismissed the importance of legal challenges.
“It will start with a lot teething problems, and you will have lots of legal action against them and they will try to delay it — that’s what’s inevitable,” he stated during a visit at a farm.
Rwanda is home to one of the world’s most populous countries, but it remains among the least developed nations despite the efforts of modernization since 1994.
The chances of migrants seeking better lives in Britain will be less for those who have fled their homeland in search of better opportunities. However, Rwandan officials say that their country has a proud tradition of welcoming people in need.
