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Civil service unions have launched legal action against the government over its plan to detain and fly asylum seekers to Rwanda.
The FDA union intends to take ministers to court over the bill, which was passed by Parliament last week after weeks of back-and-forth between MPs and Lords. Unions are concerned about what would happen if ministers ordered civil servants to violate international law when carrying out deportations.
Under civil service law, civil servants have a duty to comply with the law, and union leaders say the government is creating a conflict of interest if civil servants are ordered to ignore European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) judgments. thinking.
The ECHR could be forced to intervene in Rwanda's deportations if asylum seekers bring their case to the Strasbourg courts. In such circumstances, a judge may make an order under Rule 39 directing the UK Government to halt the removal. This halted the first Rwanda flight and sparked a long legal battle in the UK, culminating in the Supreme Court ruling that Rwanda was unsafe for asylum seekers.
The FDA union has applied for a judicial review over conflicts of interest, meaning a High Court judge must first consider whether their case can proceed.
Dave Penman, general secretary, said: “This is not a decision we have taken lightly. The Government has had plenty of time to put clear provisions into law regarding breach of international law commitments to resolve this issue. , did not choose it.
“Civil servants should not be put in the position of conflicting between ministerial instructions and compliance with the Civil Service Act, but that is exactly what the government has chosen to do.”
Mr Penman said this was a “political choice by the government” and “irresponsible”. Rishi Sunak said last week that civil servants must receive instructions from ministers to ignore ECHR rulings. He said the guidance for civil servants had been amended to make it clear that they must follow instructions from ministers, even if those instructions contravene international law.
The union's announcement comes after the Home Office revealed it carried out a number of detentions across the UK of asylum seekers selected for deportation from Rwanda.
Mr Sunak said the flights would take off in early July, and Home Secretary James Cleverley said on Wednesday that enforcement teams were working “at pace to swiftly detain people who have no right to be here”.
About 800 police officers are being deployed in an operation called Operation Vector to detain hundreds of asylum seekers in preparation for their first flights to Rwanda.
Officers began detaining people who came to report to immigration detention centers on Monday, as well as going to people's homes and detaining them. The operation will continue until the designated immigration detention centers set aside for travelers to Rwanda are filled.
