The first flight taking asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda is set to take off today. Human rights campaigners had launched a legal bid to stop the one-way trip but the Court of Appeal ruled that it ‘cannot interfere’ with the government’s plan.
The flight to the capital city Kigali is scheduled to depart with seven or eight asylum seekers onboard. Originally, dozens of passengers were due to be on the flight but many won their individual appeals against deportation. More legal challenges are set to be heard before it takes off.
Senior Church of England leaders described the controversial plan as an ‘immoral policy that shames Britain’. In a letter to The Times, signed by the archbishops of Canterbury and York and more than 20 other bishops, they said: “The shame is our own, because our Christian heritage should inspire us to treat asylum seekers with compassion, fairness and justice, as we have for centuries.”
