by Asylum seekers detained by the Home Office and threatened with deportation to Rwanda are to take legal action against the government after Rishi Sunak admitted there will be no flights before the general election.
The Home Office began raiding accommodation and detaining people who turned up for routine immigration reporting appointments on 29 April in a national crackdown called Operation Vector.
Some were held in immigration transfer centers for a month, despite the fact that the prime minister had announced that flights would not start until after the July 4 election – and until I am re-elected as prime minister” – and promised the Labor to destroy them. the scheme if he wins the election.
The IS Observer revealed that Home Office lawyers were fighting legal challenges from detained asylum seekers on the grounds that flights to Rwanda were “imminent” and “progressive”, despite being told so by the government’s legal department the high court on the same day that the Home Office lawyers were as late as Tuesday. there would be no flights before the election.
Laura Smith, co-head of legal for the Joint Immigrant Welfare Council, said she was personally involved in a case where the Home Office “insisted on maintaining detention” after Sunak’s statement.
“I think there will be valid claims for damages,” she said. “In our experience, Home Office lawyers are still acting as if nothing has changed. There seems to be a lot of confusion, which is causing huge distress to our clients.”
Lawyers representing detained asylum seekers told the Observer they faced significant challenges in illegal detention, even before the prime minister’s statement, because people were being seized without the Home Office making the necessary legal decisions to send them to Rwanda.
Lewis Kett, solicitor for Duncan Lewis, said: “There was no justification for holding them nine to 11 weeks before any possible flights, and even less so after the Prime Minister announced that no flights would leave before the election.
“There are questions as to whether he knew this would be the case when the detention operation began. They are likely to have strong claims for unlawful detention and compensation.”
The Home Office refused to reveal how many asylum seekers have so far been released on immigration bail and how many are still in detention.
The charity Detention Action warned that many of its supporters were suffering from depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts while being detained for flights to Rwanda. Its deputy director, Jade Glenister, said: “With many people in detention since the end of April, it is clear that their transfer was never ‘imminent’. Their retention was never justified. They should be released urgently into safe and supportive accommodation.”
The new lawsuits come in addition to three other challenges that will be heard at the high court this week. A preliminary hearing for a case against the new “Rwanda security” directive for civil servants, brought by the charity Asylum Aid, will be heard on Monday, along with a challenge by an asylum seeker selected for Rwanda.
On Thursday, the High Court will consider arguments from the FDA civil service union that Rwanda’s safety bill is illegal because it allows ministers to order civil servants to ignore the injunctions of the European court for human rights.
Home Office sources say civil servants have been told to continue implementing the Rwanda plan and the Tories’ new small boat laws, despite Labor vowing to scrap both. “Staff from the Home Office are currently being embarked and relocated to Rwanda in the last week of June,” one official told the Observer. “The implementation hasn’t stopped – we’re still wasting money on those gimmicks. This is a waste of time and money on the Tories’ chance of winning the election.”
Related: ‘They hear a knock at the door and it’s the Home Office’: threat of deportation of asylum seekers amid Rwandan crackdown
A single job advertisement for a Kigali-based “first secretary” for the program was not closed until Monday, four days after Sunak’s statement. He said the role required someone with a “strong grasp of big, controversial issues” and “sound political judgement”.
The document said a “small Home Office team” would be based in the Rwandan capital to “drive the delivery of the partnership” and “make high-risk decisions”.
Meanwhile the Conservatives’ flagship Illegal Migration Act, which Sunak promised the government’s ability to detain and remove small boat migrants, has yet to be implemented.
With the election nearly a year after receiving royal assent, civil servants believe it will never be implemented. “We are still working as usual, although everyone knows why,” the official said.
A report released by parliament’s public accounts committee on Wednesday said 50,000 asylum seekers are now “in limbo” because the government refuses to consider their claims but has no way to deport them.
