UK deportation to Rwanda could be impeded amid legal battles

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The first flight scheduled to take refugees from the United Kingdom to Rwanda on Tuesday could be grounded due to London facing various legal challenges, government sources said on Monday.

With Home Office lawyers fighting two legal challenges from campaigners and charities on Monday, officials within the Home Office have revealed that the first plane that will be deporting migrants to Rwanda might not catch flight due to challenges from lawyers working on behalf of the refugees who had been informed that they would be deported from the country.

This comes after the refugee charities Detention Action, Care4Calais, and the PCS union, which represents the Border Force staff, gained Friday the ability to appeal against the rejection of their injunction on Monday morning.

Asylum Aid, another refugee charity, will attempt once again to keep the plane grounded in the high court on Monday afternoon.

Initial reports showed that London had handed "removal directions" to 130 people who had come to the United Kingdom, but government sources said later that the figure was diminishing, and others asserted that it would be canceled.

Lawyers acting on behalf of the refugees have reportedly either lodged legal appeals over the weekend or said they would do so on Monday or Tuesday, with many invoking the Human Rights Act or modern slavery legislation.

A Spanish airline has agreed to handle the deportation process on behalf of London, and the latter granted Privilege Style a permit to fly to the Rwandan capital, Kigali, on Tuesday at 9:30 pm from Essex.

One of the charities said on Monday that around a dozen refugees due to be on the first flight to Rwanda have since been told by the Home Office that they were still being flown out of the country.

Home Secretary Priti Patel has maintained that the offshoring policy would help stop the growing number of people crossing the English Channel in small boats to seek refuge in the United Kingdom.

Though many who had been threatened with deportation are still unaware of their fate, The Guardian reported that three age-disputed children whom the Home Office declared to be adults and prepared them to be flown out to Rwanda have now been released.

The Refugee Council revealed that many of the people set to be deported on Tuesday's flight were children, and many of the UK's policies to determine a person's age have been scrutinized. The British Dental Association said it did not recognize the Home Office's technique of using dental checks to determine how old a person is.

In April, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government declared plans to deport some asylum seekers in the United Kingdom to Rwanda, a plan that drew criticism from both within and outside Johnson's Conservative Party, as well as from many charities.

On its account, the Home Office said the 1st group of asylum seekers had started to receive formal letters telling them they are being sent to Rwanda to "rebuild their lives in safety".

In a statement, Britain's Home Secretary Priti Patel said that "the Removal Direction confirms that they will be going to Rwanda and when”, adding that "the first flight is expected to take place next month, on the 14th of June."

The plan to send unwanted asylum seekers to Africa comes as Johnson faces the growing threat of a confidence vote, with some of his lawmakers saying they have lost faith in his leadership as a result of partygate scandals.

The UK has sacked criticism that the policy is inhumane, claiming that it is worse to encourage a system in which many asylum seekers are exploited by people smugglers.