Dozens of people in two rubber dinghies reached the southern coast of England on Saturday, the latest among thousands of asylum-seeking migrants to make the risky sea crossing from France this year.
Bobbing on the waves of the English Channel on a clear morning, the boats sailed across the narrow strip of sea separating France and Britain, with a French naval vessel following them until they reached English waters.
Their largely male passengers, some of whom were in orange life jackets and waving, were taken aboard a British Border Force vessel off Dover.
The arrivals illustrate the difficulties British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces on his pledge to tackle illegal migration and "stop the boats," ahead of a national election expected later this year.
More than 8,000 people so far have arrived on British shores this year on small boats, with many fleeing war or famine and traveling through Europe.
Sunak hopes his flagship Rwanda policy to deport those arriving in Britain without permission will deter people from making the Channel crossing.
Five people died in the attempt to cross the Channel last month.
Prior to Saturday’s report of ongoing illegal migration in Britain, authorities told the High Court in London that they expect the first deportation flights to Rwanda to take off between July 1 and July 15, Judge Martin Chamberlain said on Friday. He disclosed the dates as he set a hearing for a forthcoming legal challenge to Sunak’s controversial policy by the FDA union, which represents civil servants and public officials.
The FDA wants a judicial review of a newly passed law that declares Rwanda safe, despite a U.K. Supreme Court ruling that said the removals of asylum seekers were illegal.
The union wants clarity about whether the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act complies with the Civil Service Code. Under the code, the U.K.'s politically neutral civil servants are legally obliged to "uphold the rule of law and administration of justice."
The new law allows ministers to ignore parts of domestic and international human rights law when deciding on deportations, as well as any "Rule 39" injunctions from the European Court of Human Rights. That would create a potential conflict, the FDA argues.
"Civil servants should never be left in a position where they are conflicted between the instructions of ministers and adhering to the Civil Service Code," said FDA general secretary Dave Penman.
"Yet that is exactly what the government has chosen to do," he said on Wednesday when lodging the judicial review application.
Judge Chamberlain decided that the FDA challenge would be held over one day in the first week of June.
"It appears from the claim that some civil servants believe, or have been advised, that it would be contrary to their terms and conditions to comply with a ministerial decision to proceed with Rwanda removals in the face of a rule 39 measure," the judge said.
He added that there was "a powerful public interest in the determination of this claim in advance of the point when any rule 39 measure might be indicated".
The Conservative government's Rwanda policy is designed to deter huge numbers of migrants trying to get across the Channel to the U.K. from northern France on small boats. It said this week it had begun detaining failed asylum seekers with a view to deporting them to Rwanda, sparking protests.
Information for this article was sourced from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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