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LONDON. – A first flight carrying asylum seekers to Rwanda as part of a controversial UK policy was cancelled on Tuesday in an embarrassing blow to Prime Minister Boris Johnson government.

The number of those due to be put on the flight had dwindled from an original 130 to seven on Tuesday and finally none thanks to a last-minute ruling from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Rights group Care4Calais tweeted: “Last ticket cancelled. NO ONE IS GOING TO RWANDA.”

The grounding was thanks to an ECHR ruling that at least one of the asylum seekers should stay in Britain as there were no guarantees for his legal future in Rwanda.

The failed flight is an embarrassment for Johnson’s Conservative government, after Foreign Secretary Liz Truss insisted the Kigali-bound plane would leave, no matter how many people were on board.

Truss told Sky News earlier on Tuesday: “There will be people on the flights and if they’re not on this flight, they will be on the next flight.”

The ECHR issued an urgent interim measure to prevent the deportation of an Iraqi man booked on the flight as he may have been tortured and his asylum application was not completed.

The Strasbourg-based court said the expulsion should wait until British courts have taken a final decision on the legality of the policy, set for July.

Care4Calais tweeted that the same measure could be applied to the others set to be transported to Rwanda.

Truss said the policy, which the UN refugee agency has criticised as “all wrong”, was vital to break up human-trafficking gangs exploiting vulnerable migrants. – AFP