Opponents of the British government’s plan to deport immigrants to Rwanda are preparing for an appeals hearing on Monday amid political backlash following reports that Prince Charles had privately described the policy as “disgusting”. A coalition of groups including immigration advocates and civil servants will ask the London Court of Appeals to overturn a lower court ruling allowing the first deportation flight to take place as scheduled on Tuesday. The Conservative government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced in April that it planned to send some undocumented migrants to Rwanda to process their asylum applications in the East African nation. If they succeed, these immigrants would stay in Rwanda. Britain has paid Ρ 120 million ($ 158 million) in advance to Rwanda and will make additional payments based on the number of people deported. The program aims to discourage migrants from risking their lives by crossing the Channel with small boats following the increase in such trips over the past two years. However, human rights groups say the policy is illegal, inhumane and will only increase the risks to migrants. The debate filled the British media over the weekend, after the Times of London reported that an unknown person heard Prince Charles voicing his opposition to politics “several times” in private conversations. “He said he thought the whole approach of the government was horrible,” the newspaper quoted the source as saying. Charles’s office, Clarence House, declined to comment on “anonymous private conversations”, but said the prince remained “politically neutral”. Charles’s comments are problematic because he is the heir to the throne and the British monarch is supposed to remain above the political controversy. The aforementioned conversations raise concerns about whether Charles could be a neutral monarch after a lifetime of speaking openly on issues ranging from ocean plastic to architectural conservation. Charles, 73, has taken on an increasingly central role in recent months as health problems have limited the activities of Queen Elizabeth II, his 96-year-old mother. The comments sparked a storm in the British press, with the Daily Express warning the Prince of Wales: “Stay away from Charles politics!” The Mail on Sunday said: “We will not go back to Rwanda, Charles.” The Johnson administration is showing no signs of changing course. Northern Ireland Minister Brandon Lewis, who represented the government on Sunday morning British television programs, strongly defended the plan, saying the British government wanted to overturn the business model of smugglers. “The reality is that this is a policy that is going to work – to ensure that modern slavery and these smugglers know that their criminal methods will be brought down,” he told Sky News. More than 28,500 people entered Britain in small boats last year, up from 1,843 in 2019, according to government statistics. The danger of such crossings became clear on November 24, when 27 people lost their lives after their inflatable boat sank in the waters between Britain and France. The Interior Ministry, the body that oversees border enforcement, launched its own policy defense on Sunday, posting comments from a Rwandan government spokesman on social media. “It is about protecting and ensuring the prosperity and development of both immigrants and Rwandans in Rwanda,” said Rwanda’s spokeswoman Yolande Makolo. A High Court judge in London on Friday rejected a request by opponents of the plan to block British asylum flights to Rwanda until a court rules on whether the program is illegal. The ruling allows flights to start even when the wider legal challenge goes ahead. This decision has been appealed to the Court of Appeals, which will consider the application on Monday. Government attorney Matthew Galik said Friday that 37 people were originally scheduled to board Tuesday’s flight, but six had their deportation orders canceled. The government still intends to carry out the flight, he said. The government has not provided details on those selected for deportation, but refugee groups say they include people fleeing Syria and Afghanistan. Rwanda is already hosting tens of thousands of refugees. The land and resource rivalry contributed to ethnic and political tensions that culminated in the Rwandan genocide in 1994, in which more than 800,000 Tutsi nationals and moderate Hutus were killed trying to protect them. President Paul Kagame’s government has made significant economic progress since the genocide, but critics say it comes at the cost of strong political repression. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has opposed Britain’s plans, saying it was an attempt to ease the country’s legal obligations to provide asylum to those seeking safe haven. “People fleeing war, conflict and persecution deserve compassion and empathy,” said Gillian Triggs, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. “They should not be traded as goods and transported abroad for processing.”
