In response to the cancellation of last night’s flight due to transport asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda, Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s Chief Executive, said:

“The cancellation of last night’s flight should have been the moment the Government abandoned this cruel policy - but shamefully the opposite seems to be the case.

“We must not forget that the people who were due to be expelled to Rwanda last night have done nothing but exercise their right to seek asylum in the UK.

“This entire ill-conceived scheme is a desperate and dismal repeat of a similar and now-abandoned deal struck by Israel under which it also expelled refugees and people seeking asylum to Rwanda. 

“The disastrous Rwanda policy is a clear and shameful abandonment of the UK’s responsibility under the Refugee Convention.  

“It’s a disgraceful spectacle - the Government is destroying the asylum system and putting vulnerable people through an intolerable ordeal.”