The U.K. canceled its first deportation flight to Rwanda after an eleventh-hour intervention by the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled there is "a real risk of irreversible harm” to the asylum-seekers involved.
The flight had been scheduled to leave Tuesday evening. Home Secretary Priti Patel vowed to push on with the flagship policy.
"I have always said this policy will not be easy to deliver and am disappointed that legal challenge and last-minute claims have meant the flight was unable to depart,” Patel said in a statement.