But on the night the plane was due to depart, the ECtHR issued a series of rulings on the cases of the last asylum seekers destined for Rwanda, ordering the British government not to remove them. In its decision on an Iraqi national, the ECtHR said: “The European Court of Justice has instructed the UK Government that the applicant should not be deported to Rwanda until three weeks after the final domestic decision is pending in the ongoing judicial review process. ». The ECtHR found that the asylum seeker had not exhausted all legal proceedings in the United Kingdom, with British courts planning to hear the applicant for judicial review in July, and should not be dismissed until he did so. “GROUP: Last ticket canceled”, Care4Calais wrote on Twitter, after the news of the flight cancellation. “NO ONE GOES TO RWANDA.” London Mayor Sadiq Khan also reacted, writing on Twitter: “Tonight’s inhumane deportation of asylum seekers to #Rwanda has been stopped by the ECtHR – just minutes before it leaves. “Sending people fleeing violence to a country thousands of miles away was already tough and it is potentially illegal now.” The development is a setback for the UK government, as Foreign Minister Liz Trace said the deportation flight would depart regardless of the number of passengers. UK Home Secretary Pretty Patel said on Tuesday night that she was “disappointed” that the flight had been canceled and that her office was reviewing the legality of the decision. The government plans to move the project forward, he said. “Access to the UK asylum system must be based on need, not on the ability to pay smugglers. The requirements for the current system, the cost to taxpayers and gross abuses are rising and the British public has rightly had enough,” he said. Patel. “I have always said that this policy will not be easy to implement and I am disappointed that the legal dispute and last minute claims mean that today ‘s flight could not depart,” he added. Despite the government’s efforts to justify the plan, criticism of the plan continued to grow. The leaders of the Church of England described Tuesday as “an immoral policy that shames Britain” in a joint letter to The Times. “Rwanda is a brave country recovering from the catastrophic genocide. The shame is ours, because our Christian heritage should inspire us to treat asylum seekers with compassion, justice and fairness, as we have done for centuries,” he said. The letter. “Many are desperate people fleeing untold horror. Many are Iranians, Eritreans and Sudanese citizens, who have an asylum rate of at least 88 percent,” he said. “We can not offer asylum to everyone, but we must not entrust our moral responsibilities to third parties or reject international law – which protects the right to seek asylum.” In response, Tras told Sky News that Rwanda’s flight policy was “completely ethical” and that critics “must propose an alternative policy that works.”
“Incredibly dangerous” trip
According to data from the UK Home Office, 28,526 people arrived in the UK by small boat in 2021. The vast majority, 23,655, were men and almost two-thirds came from just four countries: Iran (7,874), Iraq ( 5,414). ), Eritrea (2,829) and Syria (2,260). Care4Calais said the reason most refugees were men was the result of fleeing their homelands, where “young men could be killed to stop rebelling against the government or being forced to serve in the military.” He also explained that the trip to Calais was “incredibly dangerous” and that “many families will not risk the safety of their daughters on a trip to Europe. The hope is that the men who escape will then help insure them.” Almost all people who come in small boats – 98% discount for those who arrived in 2020 – have applied for asylum. The Refugee Council said most people arriving in small boats along the Channel are likely to be genuine refugees fleeing persecution. Home Office statistics show that people arriving in the UK from Iran (88%), Eritrea (97%) and Syria (98%) are generally more likely to be granted asylum. The chances are significantly lower for Iraqi citizens – only 48% of the decisions made in 2021 were positive. The Refugee Council said that overall, about 75% of the initial asylum decisions taken in the year to March 2022 were positive and that of those rejected, about half had an asylum appeal. More recently, the number of people coming in small boats is increasing. The Interior Ministry said 4,540 people had arrived in the first three months of the year, more than three times higher than the same three months in 2021. The number of people arriving was boosted by the much larger number of people who came from Afghanistan after the Taliban took over last summer. The Home Office said 1,094 Afghans arrived in the UK in the first quarter of 2022, almost all of them arriving for the whole of 2021.
An average of £ 183,000 per flight
The United Kingdom has said it will pay Rwanda 120 120 million ($ 145 million) over the next five years to fund the project. In addition, the UK also promised to pay for processing and integration costs for each relocated person, covering the costs of legal advice, case officers, translators, accommodation, food and health care. According to a parliamentary inquiry, the British government has said it expects these to be similar to the cost of asylum processing in the UK, which is around .000 12,000 per person. The United Kingdom has refused to disclose the cost of chartering flights to transport the deportees to Rwanda. The Home Office said in its latest annual report that it paid ,6 8.6 million to charter 47 expulsion flights carrying 883 people in 2020. While the cost of individual flights varied by destination, the figures mean that on average, Home Office spent 3 183,000 per flight or 7 9,700 per person. As there is no ceiling on the number of immigrants, thousands could potentially enter the capital Kigali within the first five years of the plan.
“We do it for the right reasons”
In view of the scheduled departure of the aircraft, the Rwandan government has stated that it is ready to receive asylum seekers from the United Kingdom and will do its best “to ensure that migrants are cared for”. “We ask for an opportunity to give this program a chance,” Rwandan government spokeswoman Giolande Macolo told a news conference in Kigali on Tuesday. Makolo responded to the condemnation of the leaders of the Church of England by saying, “We do not think it is immoral to offer a home to people – something we have been doing here for more than 30 years.” “Where we come from, we do it for the right reasons. We want this to be a welcoming place and we will do our best to make sure that the migrants are cared for and that they are able to build a life here,” he added. . Although Rwanda is offering to assist with the resettlement of migrants to a third country by providing travel transportation if they can obtain legal residence, “the primary objective [of the scheme] “It’s their full integration into Rwandan society,” said Doris Wickieza Picard, chief adviser to the justice minister. “There are legal avenues for citizenship for migrant workers and refugees, provided they are eligible for citizenship,” he added. The program will last five years, but Rwanda intends to turn it into a binding treaty at a later stage, Picard said. CNN’s Bethlehem Feleke, Nada Bashir and Chris Liakos contributed to this report.
