The Home Office in Britain is scheduled to deport asylum seekers to Europe
The department is arranging to deport vulnerable asylum seekers and suspected victims of trafficking on a charter flight to Switzerland, Germany, and Austria under Dublin convention legislation today. Several persons on the flight are Eritrean and at least two are Iranian.
Deportation flights to the EU are permitted under rules that require asylum seekers to claim asylum in the first safe EU country in which they arrive. If there is evidence that a person could have made a claim in another EU country, they can generally be returned to that country unless they are a person who is suspected of being a victim of human trafficking or a person suffering from trauma and mental health problems caused by torture and other forms of persecution. The Home Office is required to refer suspected victims of trafficking to the National Referral Mechanism so they can be assessed.
High court injunctions have been obtained on behalf of several of the asylum seekers believed to be victims of trafficking on just that ground: that there has been a failure to carry out a proper assessment of the individuals. There are also concerns that not all of the intended passengers have had access to the legal advice to which they are entitled due to a failure on the part of the Home Office to hold legal surgeries in some of their detention centres.
