Priti Patel was accused by Labour of overseeing a “shambles” and participating in a “government by gimmick” after the 11th-hour cancellation of the first plane carrying asylum seekers to Rwanda.
The home secretary disclosed that some cancelled Rwandan flight passengers will be released into the community wearing tags, as she promised to continue to pursue the policy of outsourcing refugees to the east African state. It comes as government insiders said that they hoped to try again to send asylum seekers to Rwanda within weeks. Up to seven people who had come to the UK seeking refuge had been expected to be removed to Rwanda an hour and a half before the flight was due to take off. But a ruling granting a temporary injunction by the European court of human rights (ECHR) on one of the seven cases allowed lawyers for the other six to make successful last-minute applications. There is no right of appeal to the temporary injunction. It halted the deportation of an Iraqi asylum seeker to Rwanda until three weeks after a judicial review by the UK’s courts had delivered its verdict, potentially delaying any flight until August. Sources close to the government have criticised the lack of transparency surrounding the ECHR judgment, saying on Wednesday that the Home Office was still trying to establish the name of the judge who made the ruling. Government lawyers wish to establish the criteria by which the ECHR is making decisions on injunctions and the criteria for turning them down. Appearing before the Commons, the home secretary said she was surprised by the ECHR’s intervention, which overruled domestic judicial decisions, but told MPs it was inevitable there would be legal challenges. “This government will not be deterred from doing the right thing. We will not be put off by the inevitable legal last-minute challenges. Nor will we allow mobs to block removals,” she said. She said the court had not ruled the policy was unlawful but “prohibited the removal of three of those on last night’s flight”. “Those prohibitions last for different time periods but are not an absolute bar on their transfer to Rwanda. Anyone who has been ordered to be released by the courts will be tagged while we continue to progress their relocation,” she said. Patel and Boris Johnson have repeatedly criticised lawyers bringing legal challenges against the government and the groups and MPs supporting them. Several thousand migrants have set out from southern Mexico in a caravan bound for the United States, which is hoping to address regional migration during talks at the Summit of the Americas this week in Los Angeles.
Migration activists said the group, which left from the Mexican city of Tapachula on Monday, could be one of the region’s largest migrant caravans in recent years. The caravan was estimated to include 4,000 to 5,000 people, mostly from Central America, Venezuela and Cuba, The Associated Press reported, while witnesses told Reuters that the group counted approximately 6,000 people. Mexico’s National Institute for Migration did not provide an estimate of the group’s size and provided no additional comment on the caravan. Caravan organiser Luis Garcia Villagran said the group represented various nationalities of people fleeing hardship in their home countries, including many from Venezuela. “These are countries collapsing from poverty and violence,” he said. “We strongly urge those who attend the summit … to look at what is happening, and what could happen even more often in Mexico, if something is not done soon.” Tapachula serves as a key point in the journey of many migrants and asylum seekers hoping to reach the US, with thousands arriving in the city in Mexico’s southeastern Chiapas state in recent months. For months, people have complained that Mexico’s strategy of containing them in the southernmost reaches of the country has made their lives miserable. Many carry significant debts for their migration and there are few opportunities for work in Mexico’s south. Ruben Medina, of Venezuela, said he and 12 members of his family found themselves in southern Mexico because of his country’s president, Nicolas Maduro. “[We have] been waiting about two months for the visa and still nothing, so better to start walking in this march,” Medina told AP. “They gave us an appointment for August 10 in [the asylum commission], and we don’t have the money to wait,” said Joselyn Ponce of Nicaragua. “We had to walk around hiding from immigration, there were raids, because if they catch us they will lock us up.” The caravan set off as Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he would not attend the Summit of the Americas, serving a blow to the Biden administration’s efforts to use the meetings to build more regional cooperation on migration. For the second election cycle in a row, one of Illinois’ seats in the United States Senate is being contested, and the Democratic incumbent is looking to stay in Washington. Sen. Tammy Duckworth is running for her second term in office, having defeated incumbent Mark Kirk in the 2016 election.
Duckworth is currently serving on the Senate’s Armed Services’ committee, as well as the Environment and Public Works committee. She also chairs the Senate subcommittees on Airland and Fisheries, Water and Wildlife. While Duckworth is running unopposed in the Democratic primary, the Republican side of the ledger is significantly more crowded, with seven candidates currently on the GOP ballot. Here are the candidates running for Senate: Democrats:
Republicans:
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