The British government has intensified its plan to deport migrants to Rwanda after passing a controversial law last Monday that states that the African country is a safe destination for asylum seekers. A rule that prevents affected persons from filing appeals before the courts, except in exceptional cases, and gives the executive branch the power to disobey the possible opinions of international courts. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is finalizing all preparations to launch the first flights in early July, despite criticism.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, stressed that the approval of the Rwandan security law means “a new step backwards in the United Kingdom’s long tradition of providing asylum to those most in need.” The criticism was joined yesterday by the Council of Europe's Human Rights Commissioner, Michael O'Flaherty, as well as major refugee aid organizations in the UK. MSF's executive director in the country, Natalie Roberts, described the rule as “cruel and extremely dangerous” and warned that it violated the European Convention on Human Rights.
Doubts about the legality of this measure and the possible intervention of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) – which already happened in June 2022 with the first deportation flight to the African country canceled at the last minute – have sparked protests from the FDA civil servants' union, which has warned that… The risk that UK Home Office staff would face legal consequences if they carried out deportations and thus disobeyed international law. Union representatives threatened to sue the executive authority.
Sunak dismissed the warnings and noted that the government had amended the Civil Service Act so that civil servants would obey ministers' instructions on the views of the European Court of Human Rights.
in the coming days
The government expects to send the first letters in the coming days informing asylum seekers of deportations and hopes that the first arrests will begin within days. To achieve this goal, it has expanded the capacity of detention centers to 2,200 places and trained nearly 500 people to monitor and accompany migrants throughout the process, a number that will be expanded to 800 in the coming weeks. Sunak also arranged for 200 public officials to speed up the processing of potential claims.
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