LONDON—The British government Tuesday evening canceled a flight set to deport a first group of asylum seekers to Rwanda, following a last-minute intervention by a European human-rights court.
The U.K. government in April said that it planned to send some migrants who arrive in the country illegally—mainly single adult men—to the central African country. The aim, the government said, is to discourage people smugglers. The first group of asylum seekers was supposed to be flown to Rwanda on Tuesday. But in an early setback to this new flagship immigration policy, all seven migrants were removed from the aircraft after the European Court of Human Rights questioned whether they would be returned to the U.K. should the relocation policy later be deemed illegal. A U.K. court is due to rule on whether the policy is legal in July.
