The grounded Rwanda deportation flight EC-LZO Boeing 767 at Boscombe Down Air Base, on June 14, 2022, in Boscombe Down. The flight taking asylum seekers from the U.K. to Rwanda was grounded at the last minute after intervention of the European Court of Human Rights.Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Europe
A charter airline contracted by the British government to transport asylum-seekers to Rwanda has pulled out of the deal following outside pressure, another blow to Britain’s hard-line immigration plan to send asylum-seekers to the small African nation.
The British deal with Rwanda came as Western nations are taking tougher stands against accepting refugees, and as thousands of people have crossed the English Channel in small boats this year seeking asylum. Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, is aiming to position his country as a solution to the migrant crisis, though critics see the country as trying to benefit financially from the arrangement.
Under the deal, Britain would pay 120 million pounds, or $135-million, to Rwanda to finance opportunities for the migrants, including education, job skills and language training. Those who are granted asylum would not be able to return to Britain, and would remain in Rwanda.
Privilege Style, the Spanish charter airline that pulled out of the arrangement, operated a deportation flight in June that became the centre of a legal and media firestorm and was halted after the European Court of Human Rights intervened.
The company’s pullout could present a potentially insurmountable hurdle to a plan that has so far failed to send a single asylum-seeker to Rwanda amid continuing legal battles. Charter airlines that have conducted deportation flights in the past to other countries have already distanced themselves from the plan.
Opponents of the policy praised the airline’s decision to scrap the flights.
“The pullout by Privilege Style is a cautionary tale for any other aviation company that even considers getting into bed with the British government on a scheme like this,” said Sonya Sceats, the chief executive of Freedom From Torture, a British charity that led the campaign to get the airline to withdraw from the effort. “Any company that wants to go down this route again now knows that it will come at an incredible cost to their brand.”
The British government has been warned repeatedly by its own advisers that sending asylum-seekers to Rwanda might not be a sensible policy because of concerns about Rwanda’s human rights record.