UK has given £310m to Strasbourg body that blocked Rwanda flight

Britain is spending millions of pounds a year on the human rights body whose judges grounded Priti Patel’s Rwanda asylum flight.

The UK Government is one of the largest financial contributors to the Council of Europe, whose 46 members include the dictatorship of Azerbaijan.

The council, which has received £310million from Britain over the past decade, is aimed at promoting democracy and the rule of law. But its human rights tsar Dunja Mijatovic has criticised Home Secretary Miss Patel over her attempts to stop migrants crossing the Channel.

The Council of Europe, whose 46 members include the dictatorship of Azerbaijan, judges grounded Priti Patel’s Rwanda asylum flight

She has urged British MPs to ‘reject proposals that enable offshoring’ and called for more ‘safe and legal routes’ to claim asylum. Miss Mijatovic has also claimed that the Government’s border policy is ‘repressive’. The council, which receives £400million in funding annually, bankrolls the European Court of Human Rights to the tune of £64million a year.

Officials at the Strasbourg court have repeatedly rejected the Daily Mail’s requests to reveal the identity of the judge who stopped asylum seekers being sent to Africa. They have only confirmed the decision was made either by Hungary’s Peter Paczolay or Carlo Ranzoni, a Swiss jurist representing Liechtenstein.

The injunction, which said deportees faced ‘real risk of irreversible harm’, prevents migrants being sent to Rwanda until three weeks after British judges issue a final decision on the legality of the policy.

The Council of Europe human rights tsar Dunja Mijatovic has previously criticised Home Secretary Priti Patel over her attempts to stop migrants crossing the Channel

The council has received £310million from Britain over the past decade

Strasbourg judges have a tax-free salary of at least £170,000 a year, while senior council officials can earn up to that sum. Their packages include perks such as a final salary pension and travel expenses.

They can also claim an expat allowance of 12.5 per cent of their pay to cover the cost of living in the French city.

The UK’s contributions to the council this year have grown from £29.7million to £32.7million because Russia has been kicked out and no longer makes payments.

Council officials said this amounts to less than 50p per Briton each year. Only France, Italy and Germany pay in more to the council’s coffers, with the sums based on population size and economic output.

Tory MPs say the court has become too political in its human rights rulings and Justice Secretary Dominic Raab is aiming to ‘insulate’ British courts from its case law.

A Council of Europe spokesman said: ‘Every UK citizen benefits from the protections offered by the European Convention on Human Rights and the court in Strasbourg which are designed to protect human rights, democracy and the rule of law.’