The lawyers of one of the asylum seekers who are going to fly this afternoon have submitted a successful emergency application to the ECtHR after exhaustive applications in the courts of the United Kingdom. The decision is a blow to Boris Johnson’s iconic policy of sending asylum seekers 4,000 miles to the East African country. It comes after the prime minister threatened to pull the UK out of the ECtHR and accused lawyers of helping criminals exploiting refugees in the Channel. In an initial ruling, a court letter stated that the asylum seeker should not be removed on Tuesday night. Sources claimed that the stated reasons apply to all asylum seekers facing removal, so all asylum seekers who are going to board the plane tonight can rely on this court decision. The court said it had taken particular account of UNHCR data that asylum seekers moving from the UK to Rwanda would not have access to fair and efficient identification procedures. The ruling also referred to the decision of Mr Justice Swift, who, although refusing to give an order to cancel tonight’s flight, said the question of whether Rwanda should be treated as a safe third country was absurd or based on “Insufficient research” has led to “serious reasonable issues”. More details coming soon…
