UK pushes on with plan to deport migrants to Rwanda

FILE PHOTO: An activist blocking a road leading away from the Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre holds a banner during a protest against the British Governments plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, near Heathrow airport in London, June 14, 2022. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain pressed on with its strategy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda on Wednesday and is planning further flights despite a last-minute intervention by European judges that grounded the first plane minutes before it was due to depart.

The government was thwarted in its attempt to send a handful of migrants on a charter plane more than 4,000 miles (6,4000 km) to Rwanda on Tuesday night after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) stepped in to issue injunctions, meaning the flight was cancelled.