Airlines flying asylum seekers to Rwanda risk breaching human rights laws, UN experts warn – UK politics live | Politics

Airlines that fly asylum seekers to Rwanda on behalf of the UK government could be in breach of human rights laws, UN experts have warned.

The experts, who are all attached to the UN human rights council, issued a statement today arguing that airlines working for the government should be aware of the legal risk.

They said:

Even if the UK-Rwanda agreement and the ‘Safety of Rwanda’ bill are approved, airlines and aviation regulators could be complicit in violating internationally protected human rights and court orders by facilitating removals to Rwanda.

If airlines and aviation authorities give effect to state decisions that violate human rights, they must be held responsible for their conduct.

As the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights underline, aviation regulators, international organisations and business actors are required to respect human rights.

The three experts highlight the risk of asylum seekers being taken to Rwanda suffering “refoulement” – being returned to a country where they are at risk of persecution. The supreme court cited this risk as the reason why Rwanda was not a safe country in its judgment on the deportation policy last year. But the UK government claims its subsequent treaty with Rwanda has led to judicial reforms being enacted in Rwanda that mean the refoulement threat no longer applies.

The three UN figures who have issued the warning are: Siobhán Mullally, special rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children; Gehad Madi, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants; and Allice Jill Edwards, special rapporteur on torture.

For months journalists have been asking No 10 if the government has found a private company willing to provide planes to take asylum seekers to Rwanda. At his press conference today Rishi Sunak finally provided a clear answer (yes – see 10.45am) in an opening statement that contained quite a lot of detail intended to show that No 10 does think it can get regular flights leaving later this year and that it is not just planning the odd flight with a handful of passengers “here or there” (as Suella Braverman would put it – see 9.52am).

But, for all the facts and numbers he was able to deploy, Sunak could not quite cover up the fact that he was also confirming that he has failed in his goal of getting flights going in the spring – because they won’t leave until July. He blamed Labour peers, but this was not entirely convincing because peers say the bill was originally intended to get royal assent before Easter and that it was government’s decision to let “ping pong” drag on for so long. Sunak also refused to say how many asylum seekers the government expects to deport per flight, or before the election.

Given the Westminster obsession with election timing, Sunak’s comments will also be scrutinised for any clues they offer on this. During the Q&A he dodged a question about whether the flights timetable meant he was ruling out a July election. (See 10.50am.) At one point it was argued that, in relation to Rwanda, the Tories would be best off holding an election once the bill has passed, or once the first flight has left, but before the policy has had time to fail (which will be the verdict if small boat arrival numbers show that it is not working as a deterrent). Sunak did not engage with this argument, but he did not sound like someone planning a rush to the polls in July. What he said to the BBC’s Chris Mason (see 11.15am) was probably more consistent with October or November still being the working assumption (provided the Conservative party does not self-destruct after the local elections).

Here are the main points.

• Sunak said the first flight to Rwanda “will leave in 10 to 12 weeks” – confirming that he has abandoned his goal of ensuring deportations start in the spring. The new timetable means July (1 July is 10 weeks from today). After that there will be “multiple” flights leaving regularly every month, Sunak said. But he declined to say how many people he expected to be one the first flight.

• He refused to say if the new timetable meant he was ruling out a July election. As Jason Groves from the Daily Mail says, his comments seemed to confirm the autumn as the most likely time for the election.

• Sunak said Rwanda was ready to implement the policy too, and he said the Rwandan president, Paul Kigame, was “completely committed” to it. (See 11.15am.)

• Sunak said the UK would not need to leave the European court of human rights to implement the Rwanda policy, but he indicated he would be willing to leave if ECHR membership was a threat to national security. (See 10.48am.) This is a line he used recently in a Sun interview. Suella Braverman has said that, if this is meant to be a hint that he would be willing to withdraw, it’s phoney.

• Sunak said that he continued to have confidence in the Met police commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, but that that was conditional upon Rowley working to rebuild the trust of the Jewish community and the public at large. (See 10.55am.)

Sunak take his final question – from the BBC.

Normally at No 10 press conferences the BBC political editor gets called first, in recognition of the fact that he or she is normally seen as the most influential journalist in the lobby. Maybe people are being called in random order today, but at Westminster there will be suspicions that this is a discreet snub that will go down will with anti-BBC Tories.

Q: [From Chris Mason] You are accepting that your initial promise, to get flights off in the spring, won’t happen. Can you be certain that, by the time of the election, you will be able to prove this policy is working as a deterrent?

Sunak says he won’t add to what he has said already about the timing of the election. (See 10.50am.)

He says the delay has been caused by Labour consistently blocking the policy.

But the government has worked to make sure this will work, he says. For example, in the past poor decision making has held up asylum decisions. That is why more people have been trained.

He says the government could “rush” and get one flight off. He goes on:

But that’s not the priority. The priority is being able to deliver a regular rhythm, a drumbeat of multiple flights a month, over the summer and beyond. Because that’s how you build a systematic deterrent and that’s how you’ll stop the boats.

That is the system he is putting in place, Sunak says.

Q: Do you have confidence in the Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley?

Sunak says he shares the “shock and anger” felt by people who saw the video clip of how a police officer told Gideon Falter that being “openly Jewish” was provocative when he was in London near a pro-Palestinian demonstration.

He says the police do a difficult job, and he does have confidence in Rowley. He goes on:

But that’s on the basis that he works to rebuild the confidence and trust of, not just the Jewish community, but the wider public, particularly people in London but more broadly.

And you regain that trust … by making it clear that the police are not tolerating behaviour that we would all collectively deem unacceptable when we see it because it undermines our values.

He says James Cleverly, the home secretary, is meeting Rowley to discuss this issue today.

UPDATE: Sunak said:

I share the shock and the anger that many are feeling when they saw the clips over the weekend.

And you know what I would say about Mark Rowley and the police, they do have a difficult job, of course I appreciate that.

But what happened was clearly wrong. And it’s right that they’ve apologised for that.

And yes, I do have confidence in him, but that’s on the basis that he works to rebuild the confidence and trust of not just the Jewish community, but the wider public, particularly people in London but more broadly.

And you regain that trust and that confidence by making it clear that the police are not tolerating behaviour that we would all collectively deem unacceptable when we see it because it undermines our values.

And I think that is critical. And I know the home secretary will be meeting the commissioner later today.

Q: Does this mean you are ruling out a summer election?

Sunak says he has already said what he has said on the date of the election.

(He has said that his working assumption is that it will be in the second half of the year. Normally that is taken to mean October o November, but July is in the second half of the year too.)