the times | Monday June 13 2022 2GM 5
News
Fewer than ten migrants are due to be
on tomorrow’s inaugural flight to
Rwanda after dozens of individuals
lodged last-minute legal challenges.
About 130 migrants had been handed
“removal directions”, meaning they
were deemed to have arrived in the UK
illegally and were due to be put on a
one-way flight to the African country.
The flight is at risk of being called off
altogether if the remaining migrants
lodge legal appeals against deportation.
Yesterday morning only ten still had
documents saying they would be sent to
Rwanda. Fifteen had had their removal
directions cancelled over the previous
24 hours, according to Care4Calais, a
charity that helps refugees. But the
figure fell during the day, with a Home
Office source saying: “We’re down to
single digits now.”
Campaigners have lodged an appeal
against Friday’s High Court ruling,
which said the flight on Tuesday could
go ahead. The Court of Appeal will rule
on whether all flights should be
grounded until a judicial review on the
policy is heard next month.
Mark Serwotka, head of the Public
and Commercial Services Union,
which represents 80 per cent of Border
Force officials and is one of the organi-
sations that has brought the challenge,
was confident of winning today’s
appeal, which would ground the flight.
He told Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday:
“The legality of these proposals will
only be tested out at the full court hear-
ing in July. We’re absolutely confident
that in July... these proposals will be
found to be unlawful.”
He said that the home secretary, Priti
Patel, would not ask civil servants to
carry out the policy before its legality
had been tested in court if she “had any
respect, not just for the desperate
people who come to this country but for
the workers she employs”.
Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ire-
land secretary, insisted that the flight
would go ahead despite the legal chal-
lenges and the revelations that the
Prince of Wales opposes the policy.
The Refugee Council said that
the 130 migrants who were initial-
ly due to be on tomorrow’s flight
to Rwanda included children.
The charity said the Home
Office had incorrectly
assessed a number of child
migrants as adults and that
it knew of several
migrants under 18
booked on the flight
after the Home Office
ruled that they were
adults. The British
Dental Association
Migrants’ rights
campaigners
protested outside
a detention centre
near Gatwick,
chanting:
“No Rwanda”
Legal battles
leave Rwanda
deportees in
single digits
Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor has said it does not recognise the Home
Office’s technique of using dental
checks to work out a migrant’s age.
The Refugee Council warned that
the age assessments were rushed and
that children did not realise they could
appeal. It is not known whether
migrants claiming to be children are
among those still due on the flight. The
charity warned that young arrivals
were often unaware of age decisions
applied by immigration officials.
Although they should be advised of
their right to challenge such decisions
the Refugee Council said that young
people were often given little support
and would not know to challenge an
incorrect assessment.
Tom Pursglove, the minister for
illegal immigration, has said that any
age dispute “must be concluded before
someone is relocated to Rwanda”.
The Refugee Council said it had seen
cases of children who had been de-
tained as adults being issued with “noti-
ces of intent” to remove them. Enver
Solomon, its chief executive, said: “The
cruel and nasty Rwanda deal fails to see
the face behind the case and treats vul-
nerable people with contempt. We have
had to directly intervene to stop child-
ren who were incorrectly assessed as
adults from being deported to Rwanda.
We are very concerned that this will be
the fate of many more young people
currently being held in detention.”
Johnston Busingye, Rwanda’s high
commissioner to the UK, expressed
disappointed that “much of the discus-
sion has either questioned our motives
for entering the partnership or doubted
our ability to provide safe haven”. He
wrote in The Daily Telegraph: “There’s
no doubt that we are a work in progress,
every country is, but the Rwanda of to-
day is unrecognisable from the country
the world was introduced to in 1994.”
Doris Uwicyeza, Rwanda’s lead nego-
tiator on the deal, said that the country
could accept migrants in the “tens of
thousands” but would start gradually.
The Prince of Wales faced a backlash
from ministers after The Times’s revela-
tion on Saturday that he privately
described the Rwanda policy as
“appalling”. One told The Sunday
Times: “While this kind of inter-
vention will be tolerated while he
is the Prince of Wales, the same
will not be true when he be-
comes king.”
Yesterday a protest was
held outside an immigration
removal centre near Gat-
wick. Activists chant-
ed “no Rwanda” and
shook the fence, with
people inside shout-
ing the same slogan.
Prince’s
intervention,
letters, page 28
Charles should
scrupulously avoid
politics, leading
article, page 29
Refugee doctor’s
criticism, Times
Queen surpasses Thai king’s record
Don’t take the bunting down yet: the
Queen may have wrapped up her
Platinum Jubilee extravaganza but she
has now been crowned the world’s
second-longest reigning monarch.
The Queen, 96, has overtaken King
Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand, who
reigned for 70 years and 126 days
between 1946 and 2016.
She came to the throne after the
death of her father George VI in
February 1952 and became the longest-
serving British monarch in September
2015, surpassing her great-great grand-
mother, Queen Victoria, who reigned
for 63 years and 216 days. She became
the world’s longest-reigning living
monarch in October 2016 when King
Bhumibol died aged 88.
Louis XIV of France, known as theSun King, remains the longest serving
monarch of a sovereign state, having
ruled for 72 years and 110 days from
1643 to 1715.
Some argue that Sobhuza II of
Swaziland, who died in 1982, is the
longest-reigning monarch. He was four
months old when he became king and
ruled for 82 years and 253 days.
However, the country was a British
protectorate until 1968.
The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee was
marked this month with two bank
holidays and four days of parades,
street parties and events held across the
UK and the Commonwealth. In a letter
published on the final day of festivities,
the Queen thanked the nation, saying
that she had been “humbled and deeply
touched” and that she hoped “this
renewed sense of togetherness will be
felt for many years to come”.Ben ClatworthyT
he Duke of York
has asked the
Queen to
reinstate him as
colonel of the
Grenadier Guards as part
of a plan charting hisreturn to public life, it
was reported yesterday
(Nadeem Badshah
writes).
Prince Andrew is also
believed to have asked
that his daughters,Princess Beatrice and
Princess Eugenie, be
made working royals.
Today, as a member of
the Order of the Garter,
the duke is expected to
attend the Garter Day
service at Windsor
Castle. A source told The
Sunday Telegraph: “The
colonelcy of the
Grenadier Guards was his
most coveted title and he
wants it back. Havingremained a counsellor of
state, he also believes he
should be included at
royal and state events.”
However, The Sun
reported last night that
Andrew would attend
only private aspects of the
ceremony after other
members of the royal
family, including the
Prince of Wales and the
Duke of Cambridge,
raised concerns about a
possible “backlash”.
Andrew’s appearance
at the ceremony for the
Order of the Garter,
Britain’s senior order of
chivalry, will be his first
official outing since the
Duke of Edinburgh’s
memorial service in
March when he
accompanied the Queen
to Westminster Abbey.
His spokesman
declined to comment.
A senior palace source
told The Sunday Times:
“Clearly thought will
have to be given to how
to support the duke as,
away from the public
gaze, he seeks to slowly
rebuild his life in a
different direction. There
is of course a real
sensitivity to public
feelings. There is also
recognition that the task
of starting to support him
as he begins to rebuild his
life... should not be
played out every day in
the public spotlight.”
Suggestions that
Andrew, 62, could move
to Scotland are
understood to be wide of
the mark. In January his
military titles and royal
patronages were returned
to the Queen and it was
announced that he would
stop using the style His
Royal Highness in an
official capacity. In
February he paid about
£12 million to settle a civil
case in the US with
Virginia Giuffre, 38, who
accused him of sexual
abuse. He has always
denied any wrongdoing.
Ghislaine Maxwell’s jail
hope, page 19Duke ‘asks for his
Guards role back’
The Duke of York, who is
expected to appear in full
regalia today for the Garter
Day service in Windsor, in
uniform as colonel of the
Grenadier Guards in 2019MAX MUMBY/INDIGO/GETTYThe Queen has overtaken the late
King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand