Quakers oppose forced removals to Rwanda as government faces legal challenge
Quakers continue to urge the government to drop its contentious plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, now being challenged in the High Court.
The legal challenge, brought by asylum seekers along with the Public and Commercial Services Union, Care4Calais and Detention Action, began on Monday, September 5.
The Royal Courts of Justice hearing was expected to last for five days, with a second hearing brought by Asylum Aid due in October.
Decisions on both claims are expected at the same time but could take months, especially if either side appeals all the way up to the Supreme Court. David Forbes of QARN said: "There is still a long road to travel."
Policy 'flies in face' of Refugee Convention
Fred Ashmore of the Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network said: "We in QARN steadfastly hope that this government will find a way to dump the Rwanda flights policy which flies in the face of the Refugee Convention as well as provoking outrage internationally."
Some newly arrived asylum seekers housed in hotels received letters in August threatening them with deportation to Rwanda, the Guardian reports, indicating that the Home Office plans a new deportation flight after the first was grounded on June 14 after legal action.
When the plan was introduced in June this year Quakers in Britain said that forced removals to Rwanda were the cruel fruits of policies of discrimination increasingly embedded into the practices of the British state.
Quakers and many others advocate for new, peaceful, safer routes of migration including the introduction of humanitarian visas and improved rules for family reunion.