50 Migrants Detained for Rwanda Deportation Flights Freed on Bail: Lawyers

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during a press conference in Downing Street, London on Monday April 22, 2024. (Toby Melville/PA Wire)

Fifty asylum seekers who were detained to be sent to Rwanda on deportation flights have been freed on bail, their lawyers said.

Duncan Lewis Solicitors said many of the detainees are survivors of torture and trafficking.

They were set to be on the deportation flights to Rwanda, which the government wants to see take off in July.

“The Tribunal, in granting bail, rightly assessed them to not carry a risk of absconding, reaching the rational view that removal was not imminent,” the lawyers said.

They also suggested that the freed asylum seekers were part of the “scores of people” detained in the end of April. It happened, despite “no decisions being made on whether their asylum claims were inadmissible and despite no decisions taken on whether it was safe for them to be removed to Rwanda,” the solicitors said.

Timing

The government passed the Rwanda safety bill on April 25 and said it wants to see the first deportation flights take off in July. Downing Street views the Rwanda plan as a deterrent to stop illegal immigrants from crossing to Britain via the English Channel.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was pressed on the timing of Rwanda flights after announcing the general election date.

Mr. Sunak confirmed last month, that Rwanda flights will take off “after the election.”

“If I’m elected, we will get the flights off. The preparation work has already gone on,” Mr. Sunak said.

The removal of detained asylum seekers was not “imminent at the time of detention and certainly not imminent after the PM’s announcement, calling for a general election,” the lawyers said.

“The extent to which taxpayers’  money has been wasted by detaining people in this way, around the time of the local elections for what appears to be for political gain, when removal was not imminent, needs to be calculated,” the legal team said in a statement.

The solicitors called the detention of their “vulnerable” clients “unnecessary and prolonged.” They also described the impact of detention as “detrimental” and said it is “yet to be fully assessed.”

The government’s immigration policies have been criticised by other political parties.

Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed that if he wins the national vote, the Rwanda policy will be dropped. Sir Keir also suggested that Mr. Sunak had called for an early election to avoid testing the Rwanda flights scheme.

The Liberal Democrats have also vowed to scrap the Rwanda plan if elected.

Immigration Schemes

In May, the Home Office has called for the flights to Rwanda to take off as soon as possible.

It has also announced that illegal immigrants, whose earlier claim had been refused or withdrawn, were to become part of the Rwanda scheme.

“Those who have no right to remain in the UK should not be allowed to stay. We have a safe third country ready and waiting to accept people, offer them support across the board and help rebuild their lives. We continue to swiftly detain those in line for removal to ensure we have a steady drumbeat of flights to Rwanda,” said Home Secretary James Cleverly.

Under a separate scheme, the UK relocated a failed asylum seeker to Rwanda, under a voluntary removals programme.

Depending on the country of return, applicants may be able to receive up to £3,000 in financial assistance.

A UK charity Asylum Aid has legally challenged the government’s Safety of Rwanda policy at the High Court in London. The charity claims that the Rwanda policy, published in late April, is inconsistent with the Rwanda bill.

The policy doesn’t account for the risk of Rwanda sending people to another country where they could face human rights abuse, Asylum Aid said.

It comes after the Home Office had agreed to amend parts of the policy related to considering an individual’s reasons why Rwanda is not a safe country for them.