In the end, the flight that was supposed to take a group of asylum seekers to Rwanda from the United Kingdom did not leave. It was decided there European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), hindering Boris’s plans Johnson, who intended to “relocate” refugee management in the African country. Up to an hour and a half before the flight, seven asylum seekers were expected to be transferred to East Africa.
Then the Court upheld the appeal of a 54-year-old Iraqi citizen who had asked for political asylum in London. The medical commission, after the visit, confirmed that the man, who arrived in Great Britain on May 17, had suffered torture at home. According to the ECHR, too little time has passed for the examination of the application for international protection. The court ruling allowed the lawyers of the six other asylum seekers to present them too, at the last minute, appealswhich have been accepted.
A low blow for Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Priti Patel, the UK’s Secretary of State for Home Affairs, who had promised to start sending thousands of asylum seekers to Rwanda in May.
Patel said she was “disappointed” by the sentence, and has assured that he will continue the project anyway. “They will not dissuade us from doing the right thing and from carrying out our plans to control our nation’s borders,” she said. “Our legal team is reviewing every decision made on this flight and preparation for the next flight has already begun.”
The flight, which cost around 500,000 pounds (about 580 thousand euros), was paid with public money, as confirmed by a government source. And the government of the UK paid £ 120 million as a down payment to Rwanda for the deal. The government refused to declare how much it plans to pay for future flights, accommodation and living expenses for anyone who will be sent to Rwanda
According to Yvette Cooper, the interior minister of the shadow government, the government must take responsibility for the failed flight: “The ministers are pursuing a policy they know is not viable and that will not confront criminal gangs,” he wrote on Twitter. “But they still paid Rwanda 120 million pounds and chartered a jet that didn’t take off.”
On the other side, the Rwandan government assures that it is still fully committed to welcoming asylum seekers of the United Kingdom. “We are not discouraged by these developments. Rwanda remains fully committed to making this partnership work, ”explained government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo. “Rwanda is ready to welcome migrants when they arrive and to offer them security and opportunities in our country.”
Source: Vanity Fair
