Home Office Spent £268k on Deportation Flights That Never Flew

The Home Office has spent a quarter of a million pounds on charter flights to deport people in the last three months without a single plane leaving the runway in that period, it has been revealed.

In March this year, the Home Office was forced to suspend the use of charter flights for the first time following the launch of a high court challenge by the charity Medical Justice. The charity argued that the Home Office’s policy of not informing people of exactly when they would be removed was unlawful because it failed to give people time to instruct lawyers and gather new evidence which might prevent their removal.

At a preliminary high court hearing about this case in March 2019, Mr Justice Walker issued an injunction ordering the Home Office to suspend its policy of removing migrants from the UK without adequate warning until the policy could be fully considered by the court. He said: “There appears to be grounds for real concern about access to justice.” The injunction required the Home Office to give 72 hours’ notice and full flight details. A full hearing was held in June 2019 and judgment is awaited.

It is understood that the Home Office’s use of charter flights resumed on 11 July.

The three-month suspension of the flights has been revealed in Freedom of Information requests obtained by the organisation ‘No-Deportations’.

 Read more: Diane Taylor, Guardian, https://is.gd/b6st02