A first flight in the controversial collaboration between Britain and Rwanda would, after several rounds, take off on Wednesday.
From the beginning, it was thought that 130 asylum seekers would be on board, a number that was down to seven on Tuesday afternoon. First, a British court rejected a series of appeals and gave the flight the green light to lift, but then the European Court of Justice (ECHR) put its foot down in a number of cases, and the flight remained on the ground.
Disappointed and surprised
British Home Secretary Priti Patel says she is disappointed and very surprised by the decision, but claims that it should not stop Britain from “doing the right thing”, according to her. Lawyers will review the issue and preparations for the next flight will begin immediately.
The UK announced the deal with Rwanda in April. Prime Minister Boris Johnson presented it as a way to discourage people from risking their lives by paying human traffickers to transport them in leaking inflatable boats.
Sharp criticism
The approach has met with sharp criticism, both within the UK, from the church, for example, and from an international perspective.
Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Monday that if Britain were really interested in protecting lives, it would cooperate internationally against human traffickers, instead of forcing them on to other countries.
Rwanda, one of the most densely populated countries in Africa, is already home to more than 130,000 refugees. Opinions differ as to whether the country really has the capacity to receive tens of thousands of refugees who have fled to Britain. The UN refugee agency UNHCR believes that it could be too much for the Rwandan asylum system and that it could thus pose a threat to all refugees there. But Johnson has stood his ground.
The Rwandan government has also defended the plan and spokesman Yolande Makolo describes it as a solution to a “failed global refugee system”.