LONDON\u2014 A first flight carrying asylum seekers to Rwanda as part of a controversial UK policy was cancelled on Tuesday in an embarrassing blow to Prime Minister Boris Johnson\u2019s government.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The number of those due to be put on the flight had dwindled from an original 130 to seven on Tuesday and finally none thanks to a last-minute ruling from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
British Home Secretary Priti Patel said she was disappointed that \u201clegal challenge and last-minute claims\u201d meant the plane did not take off but vowed to pursue the heavily-criticised policy.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will not be deterred,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cOur legal team are reviewing every decision made on this flight and preparation for the next flight begins now.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The grounding was thanks to an ECHR ruling that at least one of the asylum seekers should stay in Britain as there were no guarantees for his legal future in Rwanda.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The ECHR issued an urgent interim measure to prevent the deportation of an Iraqi man booked on the flight as he may have been tortured and his asylum application was not completed.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Strasbourg-based court said the expulsion should wait until British courts have taken a final decision on the legality of the policy, set for July.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Patel called the ECHR intervention \u201cvery surprising\u201d and vowed that \u201cmany of those removed from this flight will be placed on the next\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The flight cancellation is an embarrassment for Johnson\u2019s Conservative government, after Foreign Secretary Liz Truss insisted the Kigali-bound plane would leave, no matter how many people were on board.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be people on the flights and if they\u2019re not on this flight, they will be on the next flight,\u201d Truss said earlier Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Truss said the policy, which the UN refugee agency has criticised as \u201call wrong\u201d, was vital to break up human-trafficking gangs exploiting vulnerable migrants.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Record numbers of migrants have made the perilous Channel crossing from northern France, heaping pressure on the government in London to act after it promised to tighten borders after Brexit.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
British media said about 260 people attempting the crossing in small boats were brought ashore at the Channel port of Dover by 12pm GMT on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
More than 10,000 have crossed since the start of the year.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Truss said: \u201cThe people who are immoral in this case are the people traffickers trading on human misery.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Truss said she could not put a figure on the cost of the charter flight, which has been estimated at upwards of \u00a3250,000 (US$303,000).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
But she insisted it was \u201cvalue for money\u201d to reduce the long-term cost of irregular migration, which the government says costs UK taxpayers \u00a31.5 billion a year, including \u00a35 million a day on accommodation.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In Kigali, government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo told reporters it was an \u201cinnovative programme\u201d to tackle \u201ca broken global asylum system\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t think it is immoral to offer a home to people,\u201d she told a news conference.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Deported asylum seekers who eventually make the 6,500km trip to Kigali will be put up in the Hope Hostel, which was built in 2014 to give refuge to orphans from the 1994 genocide of around 800,000 mainly ethnic Tutsis.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Hostel manager Ismael Bakina said up to 100 migrants can be accommodated at a rate of US$65 per person a day and that \u201cthis is not a prison\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON\u2014 A first flight carrying asylum seekers to Rwanda as part of a controversial UK policy was cancelled on Tuesday in an embarrassing blow to Prime Minister Boris Johnson\u2019s government.The number of those due to be put on the flight had dwindled fro…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n