Asylum seekers detained by the Home Office and threatened with deportation to Rwanda are preparing to take legal action against the government after Rishi Sunak admitted there would be no flights before the general election.
The Home Office began detaining people arriving for routine immigration reporting appointments and raiding accommodation on 29 April in a nationwide crackdown codenamed Operation Vector.
Some have been held in immigration removal centers for a month, although the Prime Minister announced that the flights would not start until after the July 4 elections “if I am re-elected as prime minister” and Labor also promised to cancel the flights. The plan if he wins the election.
Observer It can be revealed on Tuesday that Home Office lawyers are fighting legal challenges from detained asylum seekers on the grounds that flights to Rwanda are “imminent” and “ongoing”, despite the government’s legal department telling the high court the same day. There would be no flights before the election.
Laura Smith, legal co-chair of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said after Sunak’s announcement that she was personally involved in a case in which the Home Office “insisted on continued detention”.
“I think there will be valid claims for compensation,” he added. “In our experience, Home Office lawyers are still acting as if nothing has changed. There appears to be complete confusion which is causing great distress to our clients.”
Lawyers representing detained asylum seekers said: Observer Even before the Prime Minister’s announcement, they were raising objections to unlawful detention because people were being caught without the Ministry of Internal Affairs making the necessary legal decisions to send them to Rwanda.
Lewis Kett, a solicitor at Duncan Lewis, said: “There was no justification for detaining them nine to 11 weeks before potential flights, even less so after the prime minister announced no flights would be booked before the election.
“There are questions about whether he knew this would happen when the detention operation began. “Almost all of them are likely to have strong claims for unlawful detention and compensation.”
The Home Office has refused to say how many asylum seekers have so far been released on immigration bail and how many remain in detention.
Charity Detention Action has warned that many of the people it supports are suffering from depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts while being detained on flights to Rwanda. Deputy chief Jade Glenister said: “With so many people having been detained since the end of April, it is clear their deportation is never ‘imminent’. Their detention was never justified. “They must be released immediately into safe and supportive housing.”
The new legal cases come on top of three others due to be heard in the high court this week. A preliminary hearing in a case brought by the charity Asylum Aid against new “Rwanda security” guidance for public officials will be held on Monday, along with an objection from an asylum seeker selected for Rwanda.
On Thursday, the high court will hear arguments by the FDA public service union that the security of the Rwanda bill is illegal because it allows ministers to order civil servants to ignore injunctions from the European court of human rights.
Home Office sources say civil servants have been told to continue enforcing the Rwanda plan and the Conservative Party’s new small boat laws, despite Labor promising to repeal both. “Ministry of Home Affairs staff are currently being deployed and moving to Rwanda in the last week of June,” an official said. Observer. “The practice hasn’t stopped; we’re still spending money on these scams. It’s all a waste of time and money in case the Conservative Party wins the election.”
Relating to: ‘They hear a knock on the door and this is the Ministry of Internal Affairs’: Threat of ‘disappearance’ haunts asylum seekers amid crackdown in Rwanda
A job advert for a Kigali-based “first secretary” for the program did not close until Monday, four days after Sunak’s announcement. He said the role required a person with “a strong command of major and controversial issues” and “sound political judgment”.
The document states that a “small Ministry of Internal Affairs team” will be based in Rwanda’s capital to “advance the delivery” of the partnership and “make high-risk decisions.”
Meanwhile, the Conservatives’ flagship Illegal Immigration Bill, which Sunak promised would allow the government to detain and remove small boat migrants, has yet to be implemented.
Because the election took place almost a year after receiving royal assent, civil servants believe it will never come into force. “Even though everyone is wondering why, we are still operating as usual,” the official said.
A report published by parliament’s public accounts committee on Wednesday said 50,000 asylum seekers were currently “in limbo” as the government refused to consider their demands but had no way of deporting them.