Posted on 06/14/2022 12:45:09 PM PDT by RandFan
A last-minute legal battle is under way over the UK government's first flight transporting asylum seekers to Rwanda.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) says it has blocked the removal of one of seven passengers due to depart on Tuesday night.
An out-of-hours judge is currently examining the remaining half dozen cases and there are fears in the Home Office the flight may not depart.
It is not clear how the Home Office will respond to the ECHR injunction.
In a statement hours before the flight's planned departure, the ECHR said it had granted an "urgent interim measure" in the case of an Iraqi man, known only as "KN", and one of seven remaining passengers.
The man, who is in his fifties, left Iraq earlier this year and crossed the English Channel to reach the UK, rather than claiming asylum in another European country. Doctors have since said he may have been a victim of torture.
KN's lawyers petitioned the ECHR on Monday after the UK's Court of Appeal in London refused to stop his inclusion on the flight.
"The European Court has indicated to the UK Government that the applicant should not be removed to Rwanda until three weeks after the delivery of the final domestic decision in his ongoing judicial review proceedings."
That ruling refers to the High Court's decision last Friday that there should be a full review of the Rwanda removals policy - but that the Home Secretary Priti Patel would be acting lawfully if in the meantime she sent some asylum seekers to Rwanda.
"The Court grants such requests only on an exceptional basis, when the applicants would otherwise face a real risk of irreversible harm," the EHCR said.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
The plane is on standby...
Boris Johnson refuses to rule out withdrawing from European Convention on Human Rights and says Government ‘may very well’ have to change laws on deporting asylum seekers after appeals slashed numbers due on flight to Rwanda tonight
PS The European Convention (and Court) of Human Rights is not the European Union but the Council of Europe, an organisation founded in 1949 and now with 49 member countries. Being an international organization, the Council of Europe cannot make laws, but it does have the ability to push for the enforcement of select international agreements reached by member states on various topics. The best-known body of the Council of Europe is the European Court of Human Rights, which functions on the basis of the European Convention on Human Rights.
So, if Mr. KN declares, “I believe in the Bible.”
Now what do they all do????
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