The Safety of Rwanda legislation overrules last November's Supreme Court decision which said that the country was not a safe place to send genuine refugees because they could be returned from there to their home countries and subjected to torture and abuse.

The UK's senior civil servants union has mounted a legal appeal against the government's controversial Rwanda deportation legislation. Meanwhile, 66 migrants were rescued while trying to cross the English Channel.

Under the Safety of Rwanda Act, passed into law last week, a minister can ignore an order made by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The FDA union said a direction to do this would breach international law, in conflict with the civil service code.

Civil servants will take the government to court over the Safety of Rwanda Act, which they say orders them to break international law. Legislation aimed at reviving the Rwanda plan to deport some asylum seekers to the east African country was passed into law last week.

Most of the asylum seekers initially earmarked for deportation to Rwanda cannot be immediately located, the Home Office has admitted. Home Office documents show that of 5,700 asylum seekers identified in the initial cohort,