A date has been set for the first Rwanda removal flight, according to reports in the Daily Mail.
Civil servants have been ordered to gear up for an inaugural charter flight on Saturday, February 24th, in anticipation of the Home Office overturning a legal ruling which blocked the policy on human rights grounds.
A decision from the Supreme Court is due by mid-December, and according to Tory insiders, they give themselves a 40 per cent chance of winning it.
During the court hearing, five justices were told that asylum seekers transferred to Rwanda under a previous arrangement with Israel were “routinely and clandestinely expelled”, prevented from making asylum claims and faced “grossly intimidating treatment”.
Issues have also been raised about the consequences for anyone who shows dissent against the Rwandan authorities, with the country described as an “authoritarian, one-party state” by a barrister for the asylum seekers in the claim.
The first attempted Rwanda flight, in June last year, was grounded by a flurry of legal challenges by migrants which led to the European Court of Human Rights granting a last-minute injunction.
Since then, thousands of migrants who have crossed the Channel on small boats have been sent “notices of intent”, warning they could be handed a one-way ticket to East Africa.
Officials have been working to select a group for the first plane, due out in February if the scheme is given the green light by the Supreme Court.
But officials anticipate that lawyers for migrants who are selected for the initial flight will launch further legal appeals in the Strasbourg court.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will have to decide whether to activate measures within a new act which will allow ministers to ignore immigration injunctions issued by Strasbourg.
He could face stern opposition from such moves, not least by the Attorney General Victoria Prentis, who has already indicated her opposition to such a move.
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