Priti Patel criticises European court ruling on Rwanda, calls it 'politically motivated'

Slamming a European court's intervention to stop a deportation flight to Rwanda, Britain's interior minister Priti Patel said the move was politically motivated.

After Brexit, the UK government had vowed to deal with record numbers of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats from northern France.

Following a series of legal challenges on human rights grounds, Britain's plan to send 130 asylum seekers on a one-way ticket for resettlement in Rwanda whittled down to zero.

To make it easier for it to deport migrants, Johnson's government is considering rewriting the UK Human Rights Act, which is based on the European Convention of Human Rights.

Expressing confidence in the legality of the policy, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he is going to pursue it.

Smashing the business model of people-smuggling networks, the 120-million-pound ($147 million) deal struck with Rwanda will stem the flow of dangerous cross-Channel trips according to Britain.

Johnson told reporters, "Every single court in this country said there was no obstacle that they could see, no court in this country ruled the policy unlawful which was very, very encouraging."

To monitor individuals who arrive in the country illegally, Britain's Home Office published guidance on a 12-month pilot using electronic tagging.

Criticising Johnson's decision, the main opposition Labour party's spokesman on immigration, Stephen Kinnock told Times Radio that most migrants were fleeing their country due to violence and persecution and may have been victims of torture and human trafficking.

(With inputs from agencies)

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