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Added on the 19/12/2022 19:28:00 - Copyright : AFPTV - First images
The UK Supreme Court rejects a government plan to send migrants to Rwanda, upholding a lower court ruling that it was unlawful, in a major setback for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. SOUNDBITE
Protesters gather outside Britain's High Court as it hears a legal challenge over government plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda. The UK announced in April that it would remove some migrants whose asylum applications failed, sending them on a one-way ticket to Rwanda for resettlement. Legal challenges prevented the deportation of the first batch of failed asylum seekers in June, but the government has said it is undeterred. IMAGES
The UK's Supreme Court declines to hear an appeal by lawyers representing an asylum seeker who is set to be sent to Rwanda on a government deportation flight, meaning the flight can go ahead. Judge Robert Reed rules that there was no basis for the Supreme Court to take up a challenge against a Court of Appeals ruling on the issue. The first flight is set to take off from the UK for Kigali on the evening of Tuesday 14 June 2022, with the government saying the policy will deter migrants from crossing the English Channel in small boats. SOUNDBITE
Protesters demonstrate outside the Royal Courts of Justice as UK campaigners get their last chance to stop the government's first flight of asylum seekers to Rwanda. The government is vowing to push ahead with the planeload of 31 claimants, on a chartered flight on Tuesday from an undisclosed airport. But the same groups have filed an emergency appeal alongside a separate legal challenge, and have been heartened by Prince Charles reportedly dubbing the plan "appalling". IMAGES
Images show Rwandan opposition politician Victoire Ingabire arriving at the Kigali High Court where she was applying for her civil rights to be restored, including the right to stand as a presidential candidate in the elections on July 15. The court, however, rejected her application. IMAGES