The Times - UK (2022-06-11)

the times | Saturday June 11 2022 2GMV2 7

News

A plan to accommodate Channel mi-

grants in a new reception centre in a

sleepy North Yorkshire village is ex-

pected to be delayed by up to two

months because of a legal challenge by

the local council.

The Home Office told Linton-on-

Ouse residents that 60 migrants would

arrive at the disused RAF base in the

village by the end of May.

None has moved in so far because of

the legal dispute between the Home

Yorkshire challenges plan for village migrants

Office and Hambleton district council.

The delay will add millions to the cost of

housing asylum seekers in hotels, with

almost 5,000 migrants having crossed

the Channel since the government

announced the plan to open the centre

as it tries to reduce the costs of accom-

modating people.

It is costing taxpayers £3.5 million per

day to house about 25,000 asylum seek-

ers in hotels, but that figure is rising

because of the soaring numbers of

migrants crossing the Channel.

Priti Patel, the home secretary, is

hoping to accommodate 1,500 migrants

at the Linton base. The plan has been

fiercely opposed by the council and

local residents. The legal challenge is

expected to argue that the Home Office

acted unlawfully as it failed to carry out

any consultation on the plan before an-

nouncing it in April.

Separately, a 150-strong campaign

group of local residents has warned

that the centre will affect house prices

in the area and also threaten the safety

of children because its occupants will

be single male migrants. Kevin Hollin-

rake, the Conservative MP for Thirsk &

Malton, has spoken out against the plan

in parliament.

A judicial review is expected to take

at least another two months. However,

the legal challenge will not deter the

government from using the base,

insiders said. One official said: “Min-

sters are determined to push it

through.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “We

maintain the site is urgently needed to

provide essential asylum

accommodation.”

Matt Dathan

during tour

that the decision to feature Paddington,

who arrived in Britain as a stowaway,

was a tacit criticism of the policy.

Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader,

called the Rwanda deal a “chaotic

diversion, not-thought-through scheme

which isn’t going to solve the problem”.

6 Charles and Camilla plan to host a

live episode of the BBC’s Strictly Come

Dancing from Buckingham Palace later

this year and may even dance, The Sun

has reported. The Queen was said to

have given her blessing to hosting an

episode from her ballroom.

News

spent decades speaking his mind

The Prince of

Wales, at

Highgrove with

President Kagame

of Rwanda, will

face an awkward

moment when he

meets him at a

Commonwealth

summit in Kigali

this month after

criticising migrant

deportations.

Charles raised

issues including

farming with Tony

Blair and Labour

ministers in what

became known as

the “black-spider”

letters. The

prince’s protest

over plans for

Chelsea Barracks

led the Qatari

developers to drop

Lord Rogers of

Riverside as

architect

Rwanda f light

can take off in

days, says judge

The first flight scheduled to take

migrants to Rwanda can go ahead as

planned on Tuesday, the High Court

has ruled.

Campaigners lost an emergency

application for an injunction calling for

all flights to be grounded until the High

Court had decided whether the plan

was lawful.

Mr Justice Swift rejected the claim,

brought by lawyers on behalf of two mi-

grants due to be on the flight, the Public

and Commercial Services union (PCS),

and the charities Care4Calais and

Detention Action.

They claimed that the policy

breached international and domestic

law on seven counts, said Rwanda was

not a safe country to remove asylum

seekers to and claimed that those sent

there risked being removed to coun-

tries that allow torture, contravening

Article 3 of the European Convention

on Human Rights.

They have been given permission to

appeal against the judgment, opening

the possibility of a hearing at the Court

of Appeal on Monday, less than 24

hours before the flight is due to leave.

Home Office lawyers insisted that

the deportation flights were in the

public interest to deter migrants from

crossing the Channel.

In his closing remarks Swift rejected

the claim that migrants removed to

Rwanda would be refused access to the

country’s asylum system and subse-

quently face further removal to a coun-

try out of the UK’s control.

He also said the full judicial review

would be heard by the end of next

month, meaning those transferred to

Rwanda under the policy would prob-

ably still be there by the time a final

ruling had been made on its legality.

Swift’s verdict came despite the UN’s

refugee agency (UNHCR) joining yes-

terday’s legal challenge at the eleventh

hour. It submitted legal analysis sup-

porting an injunction on all flights to

Rwanda, saying the deal under which

the country had agreed to accept un-

wanted migrants from the UK had fail-

ed to meet obligations under the UN re-

fugee convention.

In a particularly damning assess-

ment, the UNHCR said the deal was

“incompatible with the letter and spirit

of the 1951 convention”. It added that

the UK screening process for deciding

which migrants should be forcibly sent

to Rwanda was “insufficient to deter-

mine vulnerabilities which would ex-

empt them from removal”.

Some deported asylum seekers may

be deprived of a lawyer and interpreter,

the UNHCR said, making it difficult for

them to appeal. The analysis pointed

out that some LGBT migrants had been

denied equal access to asylum proce-

dures in Rwanda.

Raza Husain QC, representing the

claimants, said the UNHCR had com-

municated these concerns to Priti Pa-

tel, the home secretary, but she had

nonetheless claimed its approval of the

plan. “This is misleading and incorrect,”

Husain said.

Patel welcomed yesterday’s ruling

and said she would push on with plans

to deport people on Tuesday. A charter

flight has been booked and more than

130 migrants have been handed

“removal directions” stating that they

were being lined up for removal on the

flight, although many have lodged last-

minute legal claims.

She said: “People will continue to try

and prevent their relocation through

legal challenges, but we will not be

deterred in breaking the deadly people-

smuggling trade and ultimately saving

lives.”

The Bishop of Dover, Rose Hudson-

Wilkin, said she felt “ashamed to be

British” after the ruling.”

The ruling is only an initial and

partial victory for the government’s

policy as the High Court will hear the

legal challenge to the entire policy later

this year, which could scupper the plan.

The chances of the flight taking off on

Tuesday remain slim, according to

Home Office insiders.

The Refugee Council said: “The

sharp increase in the number of desper-

ate people from Afghanistan who have

undertaken perilous journeys across

the channel in flight of persecution is

the inevitable consequence of the re-

strictive nature of the resettlement

schemes, for which most Afghans are

simply ineligible.

“Instead of honouring the promises

the government made to the people of

Afghanistan by immediately ensuring

they can access a safe route to the UK,

it is refusing to see the face behind the

case and treating them as nothing more

than human cargo.”

Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor