The British government announced in April that it had reached an agreement to send asylum seekers to the East African country. Asylum seekers will then be allowed to relocate to Rwanda.
The government insisted the program was aimed at disrupting human smuggling networks and discouraging migrants from embarking on the perilous sea voyage across the English Channel to England from France.
The plan has drawn a wave of criticism from charities, religious leaders and international human rights groups, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. A small crowd of protesters gathered in front of the court on Monday.
A separate lawsuit filed by the charity Asylum Aid is also pending in the Supreme Court on Monday. Asylum Aid is requesting an urgent suspension of flights so that a judicial review of the plan can be heard.
According to the UK Department of Defense, 28,526 people arrived in the UK in small boats in 2021.
The legal challenge of blocking deportation flights was posed by the human rights groups Care4Calais and Detention Action, together with the Union of Public and Commercial Services (PCS), a union representing some of the UK Home Office staff who would were responsible for the deportations, as well as several asylum seekers facing deportation to Rwanda.
The organizations claim that the policy is “illegal on many grounds” and have sought an order to stop the plane from taking off. A full court hearing on whether the plan is legal or not is scheduled for next month. The three groups argue that there should be no deportation flights before this hearing.
They also challenged the legal powers of the UK Home Secretary, Priti Patel, to carry out the removal, the “rationality” of her claim that Rwanda as a whole is a “safe third country”, given its human rights, the adequacy of prevention malaria in the country and whether the policy is in line with the European Convention on Human Rights.
PCS leader Mark Servotka said in a statement that the union was “very disappointed with today’s decision and the position it puts our members in, who will have to carry out these forced removals”.
“Today’s decision does not make the removal legal – it will be decided next month. In the meantime, our members have been instructed to do something tomorrow that may be illegal in a few weeks, “he added.
Separately, Detention Action also said it was disappointed with the decision.
It is unclear how many people will be on the first flight on Tuesday, as many of those to be deported have begun their own individual legal challenges.
Care4Calais said on Friday it was working with 113 people facing deportation in Rwanda. The charity said on Monday that only eight of the 31 people who were originally due to be deported to the country on Tuesday still have to be deported after 23 “their tickets to Rwanda were canceled”.
Raza Hussein, who represented the coalition that filed the complaint, told the court that a man scheduled for Tuesday’s flight had received a decision Monday that he would still be deported despite being tortured on the grounds that “Rwanda has a functioning health system and this does not raise any problems.”
The British newspaper reported on Saturday that Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, had privately described the plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda as “horrifying”.
“He said he was more than disappointed with politics,” the Times reported, citing an anonymous source. “He said he thought the whole government’s approach was appalling.
CNN has not independently verified the Times report. Clarence House did not deny the report, but said he would not comment on what he called “alleged anonymous private conversations with the Prince of Wales”.
CNN’s Sharon Braithwaite, Zahid Mahmoud, Eliza Mackintosh, Rob Idiols, Niam Kennedy, Max Foster, Jorge Engels and Chris Liakos contributed to the reports.
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