UK plans more Rwanda flights despite criticism

The British government said it is going ahead with plans for a flight this week to take asylum-seekers from the United Kingdom to Rwanda, after the European Court of Human Rights intervened later on Tuesday, saying the plan carried "a real risk of irreversible harm".

Lawyers for the asylum-seekers launched a flurry of case-by-case appeals seeking to block the deportation of everyone on the government's list.

When questioned about the matter on Tuesday, government ministers were unable to say for certain that the flight would take off, but had expressed confidence that it would.

Shortly before its departure, the European Court of Human Rights, or ECHR, which is not connected to the European Union but part of the Council of Europe, of which the UK is still a member after Brexit, said one of the people being put on the plane, an Iraqi man known as KN, faced "a real risk of irreversible harm" if he remained on board.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said she was "disappointed" by the ruling but was going ahead with plans for the next flight, adding that "many of those removed from this flight will be placed on the next".

Prime Minister Boris Johnson hinted that Britain's membership of the European Convention on Human Rights might be in question as a result.

"Will it be necessary to change some laws to help us as we go along? It may very well be and all these options are under constant review," Johnson said on Tuesday.

In the run-up to the 2016 Brexit referendum when asked about the convention, Johnson defended it saying: "We wrote it and actually I am a supporter of it. … I think it was one of the great things we gave to Europe. It was under Winston Churchill, it was a fine idea in the postwar environment."

'Illegal, inhumane'

Opponents have argued that it is illegal and inhumane to send people thousands of miles to a country they do not want to live in. The UK has seen an influx of illegal migrants in recent years from Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan, Iraq and Yemen.

Refugee Council chief executive Enver Solomon said the British government's deportation threat would not serve as a deterrent to those seeking safety in the UK.

"The government must immediately rethink by having a grown-up conversation with France and the (European Union) about sharing responsibility and look to operating an orderly, humane, and fair asylum system," Solomon said.

Initially, 31 people had been booked to be aboard Tuesday's aborted flight, but then 15 were taken off the list because, according to refugee charity Care4Calais, there was evidence they had been tortured or trafficked, or that their deportation was deemed unsafe on medical grounds.

The Rwandan government said on Wednesday that it was "not discouraged" by the cancellation of the flight and that it remained "committed" to the partnership.

"We are not discouraged by these developments," government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo told Agence France-Presse. "Rwanda remains fully committed to working to make this partnership work."

Agencies contributed to this story.