Hundreds of migrants cross Channel in one day as Rwanda hotel rooms sit empty after secret European judge blocks flight
PM Boris Johnson said he may rip up human rights rules — after a flight deporting migrants to Rwanda was blocked.
Hotels set aside for them lay empty yesterday following the move by an anonymous Euro judge. Meanwhile hundreds more arrived in the UK from across the Channel.
The Government could even quit the European Court of Human Rights altogether.
Ministers are raging that the court would not reveal the identity of the judge who made the decision at 10pm on Tuesday.
The flight had been given the go-ahead by three different British courts — triggering fresh alarm that Euro judges are stopping Britain from controlling its borders.
Despite howls of protest from left-wing lawyers, charities and bishops, ministers are convinced the prospect of being flown to Rwanda under the £120million scheme will put people off trying to make treacherous Channel crossings to reach the UK.
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Yesterday — amid widespread coverage of the fact the deportation flight had been halted — scores of migrants clambered into dinghies and travelled here.
It is estimated at least a couple of hundred arrived in Dover, while some were rescued from the Channel by lifeguards.
More than 1,000 migrants have landed on British shores this month alone.
On the same day that the plane bound for Rwanda was blocked, 444 people landed in Britain.
Meanwhile police have launched a manhunt to find a dozen suspected migrants who were whisked away in people carriers after being dropped off in a speedboat at a beach in Devon yesterday.
There is concern people smugglers may be using this as a new route into the country. The European court’s ruling triggered a furious response from MPs.
When asked yesterday if Britain could ditch membership of the European Convention on Human Rights, Downing Street admitted that “all options are on the table”.
Such a move would lead to Britain not being a member state of the European court.
Attorney General Suella Braverman said she was “not ruling anything in or out . . . to achieve our goal.”
Attorney General Suella Braverman said she was “not ruling anything in or out . . . to achieve our goal”.
She added: “What people are seeing and will be frustrated with and confused by, is that a foreign court has seemingly cut across rulings of our domestic courts, parliamentary statute and a UK policy designed to address domestic objectives.”
What people are seeing and will be rightly frustrated with and confused by is that a foreign court has seemingly cut across rulings of our domestic courts, parliamentary statute and a UK policy designed to address domestic objectives
Attorney General Suella Braverman
Privately senior Government figures have ruled out a referendum on repealing the Human Rights Act and cutting ties with the Strasbourg court.
But it is widely accepted in Downing Street that a direct mandate from the people would be needed to take such a drastic step. The late European court judgment saw four migrants — who were already sat and trapped in on the Boeing 767 — hauled off the flight.
Some in the Cabinet are even telling the PM to call for an election, with the vow to reform human rights laws front and centre of any campaign.
A Cabinet source said: “It should be the only manifesto commitment and put to the country as soon as possible — if he has the balls.”
The late European court judgment saw four migrants — who were already sat and strapped in on the Boeing 767 — hauled off the flight.
The Home Office is monitoring those who have been released using electronic tags.
Home Secretary Priti Patel told MPs the court blow would not end the policy, although it now faces being delayed for months.
She said: “This Government will not be deterred from doing the right thing, we will not be put off by the inevitable legal last-minute challenges, nor will we allow mobs to block removals.”
Whitehall sources said planning had started on the next flight, with it expected to take off in weeks — pending further legal challenges.
Yesterday Tory MPs started a rallying cry to leave the Euro court.
Desmond Swayne said: “We are going to have to grasp the nettle and extend the principle of ‘taking back control’ to the Convention.”
Jonathan Gullis fumed: “Foreign judges have meddled with our UK legal system and our Parliament.”
And Craig Mackinlay said: “The whole concept that a judge in chambers in Strasbourg . . . has overturned a decision of this country’s Supreme Court and then lower courts on the way, I’m afraid, is a situation that cannot continue.”
Yesterday lawyers who brought the case said ministers should not have been “surprised” by the use of the European court when domestic remedies are exhausted. Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary
Yvette Cooper told Ms Patel the Rwanda situation is “a shambles”.
'SHAMBLES'
She added: “This is not and never has been a serious policy.”
It emerged that Bella Sankey, director of Detention Action, which has been helping the legal challenges against the Rwanda plan, hopes to stand as a Labour candidate at the next election.
Yesterday The Sun toured the Rwandan asylum camp branded “inhumane” by British campaigners and found it is more like a holiday resort.
Gashora Transit Centre, which may be used to process Channel migrants, features air-conditioned chalet blocks with brightly-painted balconies overlooking Lake Gashora. It offers an all-you-can-eat buffet and has football pitches, basketball courts, pool tables, free wifi and a kids’ club.
Our findings shatter claims that sending illegal migrants to Rwanda would breach their human rights.
Sources in the African nation confirmed that none of the campaigners has visited the country’s facilities.
The camp’s deputy manager Fares Riuyumbu rejected the idea that residents are mistreated.
He said: “They have absolute freedom to come and go as they please. We provide everything they could require and more.
“Most of the people here have come from very difficult circumstances and we are very sensitive to their needs. I believe we provide a very high standard of living, a safe space where people can re-centre while a permanent solution is found for them.”
The centre is nestled among £100,000 villas overlooking countryside and banana plantations.
It houses migrants who have arrived from countries such as Libya — and said it had yet to be told if it would be used for any UK arrivals.
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Rwandan government spokesman Yolande Makolo criticised campaigners who have dismissed the country as inhumane.
She said: “Part of the narrative that’s out there is that Africa is a s***hole, for want of a better word, and it’s not true.”
Who's in charge?
By Mercy Muroki
ANOTHER day, another dingy. In the hours before the Rwanda deportation flight was due to take off, we instead ended up taking in 444 more Channel migrants.
A plane with seven migrants aboard was grounded just half an hour before departure, following a last-minute decision by some obscure international judges based in Strasbourg, France.
What an affront to our domestic justice system and our democracy.
When a British High Court judge gave the flight the all-clear on Friday, he said there was a “material public interest” in allowing the Home Secretary’s plan to go ahead.
He said there was no evidence that migrants would face ill-treatment in Rwanda. He was right.
Our own Court of Appeal then upheld this judgement just four days later. They were right, too. But this ECHR decision is a green light for more migrants to make the dangerous journey, more tensions here at home, more taxpayer money thrown at the problem.
It is time we revived the conversation about who really governs.
Our democracy and justice system must no longer be bound by a body which has been so often used as a “get out of jail free card” for foreign criminals and terrorists in the past.
The only people jumping with joy at this decision are Tory-bashing activists and people smugglers.