by Andrew McAskill and Matthew Childs

LONDON/DOWER, June 14 (Reuters) – The first flight carrying asylum seekers from Britain to Rwanda is set to take off on Tuesday after a British court rejected a final appeal against the plan.

Within hours of the flight’s departure from London, human rights groups and activists filed a final appeal in the Supreme Court, which was dismissed by the judge.

However, many have successfully argued that they should not be deported to Rwanda, meaning the number of people leaving has dropped from 37 to 7. Further legal challenges continue.

Under a “partnership” concluded in April between London and Kigali, anyone entering the UK illegally from January 1 can be transferred to Rwanda.

The project has been the subject of severe criticism. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees called it “disastrous”, the leader of the entire Anglican Church called it immoral and shameful, and the media reported that Prince Charles called it “horrific”.

The government says this deportation strategy is necessary to stop the flow of migrants across the channel and eliminate smuggling networks.

“There will be people on this flight, and if they aren’t they will be on the next plane, as we are determined to break the pattern of horrific human traffickers,” Foreign Minister Liz said. Truss Sky News. “It’s really important to establish a theory”.

Human rights groups say the policy would put asylum seekers at risk. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said Rwanda lacked the ability to process applications, and there was a risk that some migrants could be deported back to the countries they had fled. (Written by Kate Holton and Kylie McClellan, with Alistair Smout, Michael Holden, Kylie McClellan and Paul Sandals; French version Valentine Baldassari, spoken by Kate Entringer)