Decision to deport: An important sign of humanity

The fact that the European Court of Human Rights stopped the British deportation flight to Rwanda is a sign of humanity. But the fact that he is often the last resort for refugees is shocking.

It’s an important sign, an important European sign. The fact that the European Court of Human Rights stopped the British deportation flight to Rwanda at the last minute is a sign of humanity. This is how you can comment on the emergency decision in Strasbourg. But the sentence about humanity does not come out of one’s lips in a hopeful manner. Because the important and correct decision of the Strasbourg judges has a bitter downside.

The emergency decision of the Human Rights Court is anything but a “rare intervention”, as one could read in the first reports. Strasbourg has repeatedly guaranteed urgent legal protection in human rights matters in recent years. On an annual average, there were between 100 and 250 successful decisions, 50 to 70 percent of these decisions concern deportations.

Strasbourg is the last resort

In these cases, central human rights are legally affected. It is about protection from torture, political persecution or even from female genital mutilation and sexual exploitation. Strasbourg has often become the last resort when Europe wants to deport people and unlawfully disregards obstacles to deportation.

The European Court of Human Rights as the last hope for a humane Europe: That is a shocking finding. Britain’s scandalous deal with Rwanda is not an isolated case in Europe. The social democratic model country Denmark is also outsourcing asylum procedures to countries outside the European Union and the refugee applicants at the same time. A corresponding law already exists in Denmark.

European standards fall by the wayside

However, asylum procedures in countries that cannot guarantee effective legal protection or basic human rights are not asylum procedures. The British Conservatives and the Danish Social Democrats seem to be concerned not only with raising the walls of Fortress Europe, but also with guaranteeing the rule of law within these walls only for their own citizens. Alongside the nationalism of the welfare state comes the nationalism of the rule of law, and European standards fall by the wayside.

Of the many cases in which the Strasbourg court had to grant summary legal protection against deportation, a few also concern Germany. Ironically, these trials involved extradition and deportation to Russia. Although the urgent legal protection was not successful in these old cases, they symbolically show what the Rwanda flights of the British are about.

Russia has left the human rights protection system of Europe. Europe can only act credibly as an authority for the rule of law and human rights if the protection of refugees is in good hands in all courts, whether in Denmark or Great Britain, and not just in Strasbourg.