Protests by neighbors and activists delay the transfer of refugees to detention centers
Government Rishi Sunak He faces the first legal hurdle to strengthening legislation Deportation of migrants to Rwanda It reached the British Isles via unofficial routes, instead Civil mobilization Against the detention of foreigners scheduled for deportation from the United Kingdom. Protests and actions on both sides of the battle against Rwanda plan Successive Conservative administrations may once again thwart the Prime Minister’s announced timetable, which aims to launch refugee flights by early July.
On Thursday, a human chain surrounded the bus that came to transport an unknown number of migrants from their temporary residence in a hotel in the Peckham neighborhood, south of London. The alarm had been raised hours earlier on social media, and hundreds of people gathered at the site determined to prevent the operation, or at least delay it.
One of them blew up the wheels of the car that the Ministry of Interior had hired to transport the refugees to the prison barge. Baby Stockholm, which is docked in Portland Harbour, about three hours from London. The bus driver was able to escape from the ambush this afternoon, without any passengers appearing on the bus, accompanied by police officers. A number of activists were arrested on charges of obstructing the road and disturbing public order, Scotland Yard confirmed.
Protests against the detention of foreigners are repeated in other cities in the United Kingdom. Mayor of the coastal town of Margate, Labour Robert YatesHe joined a group of Kent residents who blocked the passage of another bus by ordering the transport of 27 asylum seekers. This happened on Wednesday, the day the government confirmed the start of the process of detaining migrants scheduled to be expelled to the African country.
until 75,000 people They arrived on the British coast in boats from the French coast in the period from January 2002 to December 2023, according to official data. The government considers their most recent cases “unacceptable” and the Minister of Interior is forced to arrest them in order to deport them to the country. “Safe third country”. They have no possibility of returning to the United Kingdom in the future, according to successive and controversial laws.
The latest rule, approved by the conservative majority in government seats in April, ensures Rwanda’s security. Appeals are restricted to national courtsIt “ceases the application” of the fundamental articles of the European Convention on Human Rights and authorizes the executive to ignore interim decisions of the Strasbourg court.
The FDA’s Association of Administrative Officers and Employees has taken the lead in the legal fight against the Rwanda plan. His team of lawyers has sought an injunction to clarify the civil service situation before “A clear conflict” between a potential ministerial order and the Civil Service Law. The manual obliges the official to “respect the law and administer justice.”
The FDA believes that its members risk violating international law if they adhere to ministerial instructions that ignore a ruling issued by the European Court of Human Rights against the transfer of a refugee to Rwanda. It happened in 2022 and the plane chartered from a Spanish company flew without passengers. Since then, one refugee has traveled from England to Kigali voluntarily and with a government reward of €3,300.