The Home Office has told over 100 people that they face deportation to Rwanda, with the first flight scheduled this coming Tuesday (14 June). Numbers listed for this flight are reducing but we need to keep up the pressure.
As you will all know at the very last hour on 14 June the flight to Rwanda was cancelled due to the intervention of the European Court of Human of Rights. By this stage the original flight list of 130 asylum seekers had been reduced to only 3. Those who were forced onto the plane shared their truly harrowing experiences about being threatened, kicked and pushed. The National Independent Commission on Enforced Removals (2012) set up by Citizens UK set up after the Jimmy Mbenga tragedy made recommendations to avoid this happening again and on how to treat people being deported with dignity and humanity. This is also Lib Dem policy since 2018. Sadly the current government is not interested in how asylum seekers are treated.
Responding to the news that the Home Office is planning to reopen Campsfield House in Kidlington as part of their Rwanda Plan, Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon Layla Moran said:
A message from Detention Action TODAY:
On 28 and 29 June Women for Refugee Women took the Government to the High Court for a Judicial Review of the Derwentside Immigration Detention Centre IRC (formerly known as Hassockfield). The verdict is expected in July.
We were deeply disappointed to read last week that the legal challenge brought by Women for Refugee Women (WfRW) had been unsuccessful. The judge who heard the case did not uphold WfRW's position that by detaining women in Derwentside without access to in-person legal advice, the Home Office had denied them access to justice The ruling notes that "the quality and convenience of modern video-conference facilities is very good, and comparable to an in-person meeting" and that "the telephone is an adequate means of communication for most people".