Open borders advocates on the streets and within the government itself have stepped up efforts to derail plans to finally remove some illegal migrants from the United Kingdom in the wake of the passage of legislation supposedly clearing the way for aliens to be sent to Rwanda.
On Thursday morning, leftist activists clad in coronavirus-style masks surrounded a bus to prevent migrants from being removed to the Bibby Stockholm oil rig worker accommodation barge floating off the coast of Dorset, which in addition to Rwanda is being used in lieu of putting migrants up at taxpayer expense in British hotels while their asylum claims are being processed.
Although the migrants being taken to the Bibby Stockholm were not reportedly set to be removed to Rwanda, dozens of pro-mass migration protesters descended on the migrant transport bus, throwing electric bicycles under the front and back wheels before someone slashed the tyres of the coach.
The crowd was heard chanting: “No borders, no nations… stop deportations!” and “No detention, no flights… refugees have human rights”.
An anonymous member of the leftist mob told The Telegraph: “I don’t know how the tyres happened, maybe the tyres are comrades and let themselves down.”
Alex Shaw of the Movement For Justice By Any Means Necessary told LBC: “What we’ve done is we’ve surrounded the vehicle, stopped it from moving, so we’re not letting it go until we get confirmation from the Home Office that the remaining asylum seekers who are due to go on the bus, their removal has been cancelled.
“We’ve got hundreds of people from the local community here, we’ve surrounded the bus and we’re keeping it here until we get confirmation.”
Police have been seen making arrests at the blockade of the bus, with an officer on the scene reportedly saying: “Obstruction of a highway is one thing, but obstruction of police in their duty is a very serious offence and if that continues, we will arrest you”.
TOPSHOT – Metropolitan Police officers (MET) escort away a protester taking part in a gathering around a bus reportedly waiting to remove migrants and asylum seekers from a hotel in Peckham, south London, as they block it from transporting them to the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, Dorset, south-west England, on May 2, 2024.(Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP) (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS/AFP via Getty Images)
The actions of the leftist protesters were condemned by the Home Office, which said in a statement: “This behaviour is intimidatory and aggressive. As part of our commitment to significantly reducing the use of hotels, asylum seekers are being moved into alternative accommodation to reduce costs on the taxpayer.
“We have returned 150 hotels to local communities and we work closely with accommodation providers to manage the exit process in a way which limits the impact on local authorities and asylum seeker.”
Leftist activists have a history of success in preventing illegal migrant removals from the UK, with similar groups forcing Police Scotland in 2021 to release two migrants who were set to be deported after activists surrounded and blocked off passage of a police van carrying the migrants.
On top of renewed efforts from street radicals, the government is also facing a potential rebellion from within Whitehall, as the FDA union, which represents civil servant bureaucrats, is threatening to launch lawsuits against the scheme to remove illegal boat migrants to Rwanda.
The deep state-representing union claimed that abiding by the Safety of Rwanda bill passed last month would see bureaucrats potentially breach the civil service code, given that the legislation states that government ministers can ignore rulings from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) if the Strasbourg-based court attempts to block removal flights as it did in 2022.
“This means it’s left to ministers to decide [whether to ignore the ECHR] rather than Parliament, placing civil servants in the invidious position of facing a legal conflict between the instructions of ministers and their obligations under the Civil Service Code,” FDA general secretary Dave Penman told the i newspaper
“This vague constitutional hinterland is the last thing civil servants want. On a controversial policy like Rwanda, there are already siren voices accusing civil servants of trying to undermine the settled will of government. That’s why it was vital that the government provided clarity.
“But instead, their way out of a political bind was to recklessly dump it in the lap of civil servants.”
The threat from the union to launch legal challenges over the conflict between the law and the ECHR will likely bolster arguments from hardliners such as former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who has long argued that Britain should leave the convention.
Although the UK left the European Union in 2020, the ECHR is technically a separate institution from the EU — despite sharing the same anthem, campus, and flag — and therefore Britain’s membership was unaffected by the withdrawal from the bloc.
The European court previously stepped in to block migrant removals from Rwanda in June of 2022, sparking years of legal and political wrangling over the Rwanda scheme.
While Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has suggested he would be willing to leave the ECHR if it interferes again with British immigration policy. However, reports surrounding Westminster have warned that Sunak may face a cabinet-level revolt from the globalist wing of his government if he tries to leave the institution.