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UK forced to cancel deportation flight to Rwanda

Wednesday, 15 June 2022 11:38 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 15 June 2022 11:38 PM ]

Saeed Pourreza

Press TV, London

Grounded right before takeoff from a military airport in South West England, as the legal wrangling over the fate of those due to be deported played out.

The crew of the 500 thousand pound taxpayer-funded flight to Rwanda soon realized they weren’t going anywhere as an 11th hour intervention by the European human rights Council granted a reprieve to most of the seven Middle Eastern asylum seekers onboard- to the delight of critics of the government’s immigration policy.

A defiant UK prime minister though says he’s pushing ahead with his policy and that he may now contemplate withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights.

At the moment, the UK’s interior ministry forcibly removes anyone it deems inadmissible to claim asylum in the UK on a one-way charter flight to Rwanda and house at facilities like this one in the capital Kigali- a policy that has drawn fierce criticism from charities, to the Church of England, to rights activists,

The UK has reportedly paid cash-strapped Rwanda 148 million dollars upfront for the deportation deal and plans on making additional payments to the east African country based on the number of asylum-seekers it deports.

The UK government says it's ready to do everything including changing the law to make those deportation flights happen, but for now, a respite for desperate asylum seekers facing a terrifying future.

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