The real test of the government’s Rwanda policy

Britain’s draconian attempt to crack down on illegal migration played out on many stages on June 14th. In Wiltshire a chartered plane stood ready to make the first flight deporting asylum-seekers to Rwanda since that controversial policy was announced in April. In Strasbourg a late ruling by the European Court of Human Rights found that an Iraqi man who was due to be on the flight should not be deported until the legality of the policy had been scrutinised at a High Court hearing in July. That decision allowed others to win appeals against removal, causing the flight to be cancelled. In London Tory mps fulminated against foreign judges and the government vowed to press ahead.