Detained Rwanda scheme migrants SET FREE as Home Office prepares to axe scheme under Labour
Rwanda deportation flights have previously been blocked by the ECHR
PA
Detained migrants earmarked for deportation to Rwanda have been released after charities applied to the courts for bail.
It comes as civil servants in the Home Office are said to be ready to axe the scheme if Labour wins the General Election.
A legal firm and three charities representing around 200 detained migrants told The Telegraph all of those they were supporting had been freed.
Immigration tribunal judges reportedly freed them after ruling that there was not a realistic prospect of their removal to Rwanda within a reasonable timescale.
Rwanda deportation flights have previously been blocked by the ECHRPAIt has been reported that has established that all 115 detained Rwanda migrants supported by the charity Care4Calais have been freed on bail, as have all 50 represented by Duncan Lewis Solicitors, all 38 supported by Detention Action and all 20 represented by Bail for Immigration Detainees.
Charities believe the uncertainty sparked by the calling of the election on May 22 contributed to the decision to release the migrants.
Their release was said to be determined by what are known as the Hardial Singh principles. Named after a test case, the protocol states that to be lawful detention must only be exercised when there is a realistic prospect of an individual’s removal within a reasonable timeframe.
The migrants were detained as part of a Home Office operation, codenamed Vector. They were apprehended as part of raids on their homes, or after they turned up at immigration centres, in late April.
Former Home Secretary, Suella Braverman has warned the Tories must 'prepare for the reality of opposition'
PAA Tory spokesman said: "The only way to get regular flights off to Rwanda and stop the boats is to vote Conservative. A vote for any other party means a Starmer Government, which would cancel the fights.
"The result of that will be the UK becoming the asylum capital of the world. It will mean record numbers of boat crossings, beginning the day that Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper get into Government."
However, a Labour spokesman told The Telegraph: "If the Tories thought their Rwanda scheme would work, they wouldn’t have called an election before a flight could take off. Instead, as soon as the Prime Minister named a date for an election, many of those supposedly earmarked for removal were bailed.
"By calling an election now, Sunak was acknowledging what many have been saying for a while – the flights were never going to go and the whole Rwanda scheme was a long and extortionate saga we’ve all been forced to sit through."
It comes as former home secretary Suella Braverman has called on the Conservative Party to "read the writing on the wall" and "prepare for the reality and frustration of opposition."
She said: "It is notable that Labour’s vote share has not markedly increased in recent weeks, but our vote is evaporating from both Left and Right.
"The critics will cite Boris (Johnson), Liz (Truss), Rwanda, and, I can immodestly predict, even me as all being fatal to our ‘centrist’ vote."