Human rights group Asylum Aid on Friday said it will file a court challenge to the British government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, an initiative championed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
The policy could send detained asylum seekers to the Central African country within weeks.
Britain’s parliament passed a law last month declaring Rwanda a safe country for migrants, a move designed to overrule a ruling last year by the U.K. Supreme Court declaring the policy unlawful.
Asylum Aid launched the legal challenge Friday due to discrepancies in language in the policy regarding the safety of Rwanda.
The human rights group says a government document published this week, which told case workers they need to now consider Rwanda safe, wasn’t consistent with wording in a law allowing asylum seekers to appeal in certain circumstances.
“We have brought forward this legal action to ensure that the Home Office properly considers any individual cases against removal to Rwanda, including on the grounds that they would be returned from Rwanda to the place they fled,” said Alison Pickup, Asylum Aid’s executive director.
Pickup said that “there is a lack of information on when flights to Rwanda will take off and who will be on them,” and that “the government has made clear that it is determined to act quickly as we have already seen the Home Office carrying out forcible detentions.”
While the number of detentions has not been confirmed, the British government says it expects to send 5,700 migrants to Rwanda this year.
Sunak, who is planning on sending the first flights within 10 to 12 weeks, says the initiative will act as a deterrent for smugglers profiting from bringing migrants in boats from France.
Critics say the move is an expensive stunt with human rights implications, already costing the government millions of pounds.
Protests broke out in London Thursday as police forces moved to detain migrants from temporary accommodation. During the protests, 45 people were arrested while attempting to stop police from detaining the migrants.
Similar protests have been held or will be held throughout the country to try to stop the detention of migrants, according to Agence France-Presse.
British authorities released data Thursday that showed 711 migrants traveling from northern France were brought ashore Wednesday. That was the most migrants brought ashore in a single day this year after trying to cross the English Channel in small boats.
Last week, the Rwandan government urged those opposing the U.K. plan to allow the deportations to occur, adding it would take however many migrants Britain sends.
Since Britain officially separated from the EU in 2020, immigration has become a hot-button topic among politicians, and the government has promised to secure its borders. Approximately 122,600 people have been brought ashore since 2018 after being intercepted in British waters.
Some information in this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
