(London) British justice began on Monday to examine the appeals of associations against the highly controversial plan of London to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, against the backdrop of record illegal crossings of the Channel.
Posted at 1:20 p.m.
Hoping to combat these ever-increasing small boat crossings and fulfill one of the Brexit promises by tackling illegal immigration, the Conservative government struck a deal with Rwanda in April.
Although none of these deportations has yet taken place – a first flight scheduled for June was canceled after a decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) – the candidates for the succession of Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, promised to continue this policy.
Several associations have filed an appeal, the examination of which before the High Court in London is scheduled for five days.
The lawyer for several applicants, Raza Husain, thus accused Rwanda of being an “authoritarian state”, accusing the Kigali “regime” of torturing and killing “those it considers to be its opponents”.
Before the start of the hearing, PCS union general secretary Mark Serwotka called the deportation of migrants to Rwanda “not only immoral but illegal”, urging the Ministry of Interior to “abandon its hostile approach towards refugees “.
The founder of the Care4Calais association Clare Moseley spoke about the suicide attempts and hunger strikes of migrants informed that they would be deported to Rwanda.
Government lawyers have defended the agreement signed with Rwanda, saying that it ensures that people who would be deported there will benefit from a “safe and efficient” refugee status determination procedure, and that in no case they do not risk indirect “refoulement” to their country of origin or another country.
“Arrangements have been made to ensure that they receive appropriate accommodation and support in Rwanda,” they insisted.
This policy targeting asylum seekers who have arrived illegally on British soil is intended to discourage crossings of the Channel in small boats.
After a record August, the number of these dangerous crossings reached 1,160 out of 25 boats for the day on Sunday, according to the Ministry of Defense, exceeding 1,000 for the second time in two weeks and bringing the total since the beginning of the year to 27,384.
This is almost as much as the total for all of last year (28,526).
These crossings have multiplied since 2018 in the face of the increasing lockdown of the French port of Calais and the Channel Tunnel.
A recent British parliamentary report estimated that the total could reach 60,000 this year despite repeated promises from the Conservative government, which, having made the subject a priority since Brexit, is paying millions to France to help it strengthen the surveillance of coasts and multiplies the measures to harden the reception of migrants.