Judge Swift rejected an urgent order issued by activists at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Friday, saying the “balance of convenience” was “in the public interest” to allow flights to take place while judicial review was ongoing. The first flight, scheduled to depart from the United Kingdom on Tuesday, is to transport refugees to Rwanda as part of the Home Office’s controversial asylum processing program through the East African country. The plan is under judicial review in the Royal Courts, where a ruling on its legality is expected at the end of July. The government aims to discourage people from crossing the English Channel by transporting asylum seekers to Rwanda. Home Office lawyers told the court that the plan should not be stopped with legal disputes because it was in the public interest. The challenge came from the human rights groups Care4Calais and Detention Action, along with the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), a union representing civil servants at the British Home Office and four deportees seeking deportation to Rwanda. They claimed that the policy of the Minister of the Interior of the United Kingdom Priti Patel was “illegal on multiple bases” and asked for an order to stop the take-off of the plane. CNN’s Nada Bashir and Joseph Ataman contributed to this report from Calais.
