Thread by @allthecitizens

🔴 Yesterday, the Court of Appeal refused to block the Home Office’s deportation of asylum seekers to #Rwanda.

The first flight is scheduled to leave tonight, at 9:30pm, as human rights lawyers battle to stop the removals.
#BillWatch

https://twitter.com/allthecitizens/status/1536627782012264449?s=20&t=r4MbNM6ZGVcuNZIpxJjVmQ

It was also reported that two last-ditch attempts to halt the flight had been rejected, with the Home Office admitting that there is a risk the flight could be cancelled anyway, after legal challenges meant that fewer than 10 people are expected to board

theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/j…

A source told Playbook that, due to individual case challenges brought against the government, “just seven” people were due to board, and that an ongoing “legal merry go-round” could well mean the “removal of every single last person” from the flight.

politico.eu/newsletter/lon…

One individual who will no longer be flying is a refugee who fled Iran, where he was tortured for refusing to shoot anti-government protestors.

He only received a letter telling him he was no longer to be on the flight at the last minute:
opendemocracy.net/en/rwanda-prit…

But the government remains undeterred from the plan, widely condemned by 160 charities and campaign groups as ‘shamefully cruel’. #RwandaDeportations

independent.co.uk/news/uk/govern…

The scheme has also been criticised by 23 Archbishops, including of Canterbury and York, who’ve said they “shame us as a nation”,

And by #PrinceCharles, who reportedly privately called the plans “appalling”.

#RwandaDeportations
news.sky.com/story/rwanda-c…

While Labour have called the idea “completely unworkable, deeply unethical, extortionately expensive, and profoundly un-British”:

https://twitter.com/allthecitizens/status/1536637894768705536?s=20&t=S063tRwnykOJhvGRC_CXGg

Foreign Secretary #LizTruss, who considers the deportations “completely moral” has however insisted that the flights will nevertheless go ahead, and that if the refugees are not on this plane “they will be on the next”.

news.sky.com/story/rwanda-d…

It comes after #BorisJohnson accused lawyers trying to challenge the policy of “abetting the work of criminal gangs”, adding “we are going to get on and deliver” the divisive and potentially harmful plan.

#RwandaPlan

telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/…

We are witnessing an unprecedented attack on our democracy, with schemes like the #Rwanda deportation plan part of a raft of new bills which threaten our rights & freedoms.

Donate to @allthecitizens' #BillWatch to help us monitor these attacks

https://twitter.com/allthecitizens/status/1534504114092232705?s=20&t=S063tRwnykOJhvGRC_CXGg