Just 11 asylum seekers will be on first Rwanda deportation flight – Daily Mail
A charity has begun another legal challenge to Priti Patel’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda – as pictures emerged showing migrants waiting at a Gatwick Airport detention centre.
Asylum Aid, which provides legal advice to asylum seekers, has asked a High Court judge to temporarily block ministers from enforcing the removal of ‘any asylum seeker’ to Rwanda.
It comes as an earlier hearing – invo…….
A charity has begun another legal challenge to Priti Patel’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda – as pictures emerged showing migrants waiting at a Gatwick Airport detention centre.
Asylum Aid, which provides legal advice to asylum seekers, has asked a High Court judge to temporarily block ministers from enforcing the removal of ‘any asylum seeker’ to Rwanda.
It comes as an earlier hearing – involving the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS), and charities Care4Calais and Detention Action – heard that just 11 asylum seekers are set to be on the first plane tomorrow.
Around 100 people were originally notified they were due for deportation under the policy, dropping to 31 on Friday after a wave of litigation and the total now barely in double digits.
The first flight is due to leave tomorrow. Brook House removal centre near Gatwick has been a focus of protests against the policy, and today inmates were seen waving at photographers.
Detainees at the Brook House Detention Centre at Gatwick airport today ahead of the Rwanda Asylum flight tomorrow
Brook House – pictured today – is privately operated by Serco on behalf of the Home Office
Migrants waved at photographers from behind the metal fences surrounding the centre
This afternoon, lawyers for Asylum Aid argued that the procedure was unfair.
Barrister Charlotte Kilroy QC, who led Asylum Aid’s legal team, asked Mr Justice Swift to impose an ‘urgent interim’ injunction – to give time for the charity’s claim to be fully argued.
‘The claimant is applying for an urgent interim order that the defendant be prohibited from enforcing the removal of any asylum-seeker to Rwanda pursuant to ‘safe third country’ decisions taken under the new arrangements the defendant has adopted … pending the outcome of this claim,’ she said in a written case outline.
‘It is the claimant’s case that the highly abbreviated procedure the defendant has adopted for taking those decisions is inconsistent with the statutory powers conferred on her by Parliament, (is) procedurally unfair and constitutes a serious impediment to access to justice.’
Ms Kilroy added: ‘Without interim relief there is … a real risk that individuals will be unlawfully removed to Rwanda without access to court and may suffer irreparable damage as a result.
‘Given the nature of the decisions taken, in a context where only the highest standards of fairness will suffice and fundamental rights … are in issue, the Claimant submits that the balance of convenience lies strongly in favour of the grant of …….
