PCS welcomes Supreme Court decision on Rwanda policy and calls on the government to adopt Safe Passage

In response to this decision, PCS calls on the government to adopt our Safe Passage policy.

In July 2022, PCS, alongside Care4Calais, Detention Action and eight refugees, launched a legal challenge by way of judicial review to the governments Rwanda policy, which is designed to deport refugees to Rwanda without allowing due consideration of their asylum claims.

PCS was clear that we were taking action on behalf of our members in the Home Office, in order to improve their working environment by removing the hazards and hostility created by the policy; and in solidarity with refugees who were being subjected to its inhumanity.

In September 2022, the High Court ruled that the policy was lawful, but it quashed the decisions to deport the eight refugees and ruled that they should be reviewed.

An application was made by the refugees to the Court of Appeal, which adopted our generic grounds of argument as to the general unlawfulness of the policy. The Court of Appeal overturned the High Court verdict and ruled the policy unlawful.

PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka said:

“PCS wholeheartedly welcomes this decision from the Supreme Court. But we still recognise that our campaigning against this government’s dangerous anti-refugee agenda is far from over.

“"It is not refugees that have driven down wages and starved public services of the resources they need – it is the fault of successive Tory governments that have overseen a sustained attack on living standards.

“The only way to protect human life and prevent people from drowning in the Channel is to give them safe passage, which we call on the government to adopt.”

PCS head of bargaining Paul O’Connor, who has led this campaign on behalf of the union, said:

“We welcome the decision of The Supreme Court as a vindication of our position. PCS has stood to prevent refugees from being subjected to this inhumanity and to protect our members from having to work in an increasingly hostile environment. 

“We hope that the government will now abandon this policy and adopt our proposed policy of Safe Passage, which is the sole workable solution to dangerous channel crossings and the only way to prevent tragic deaths in the channel.

“Safe Passage would not only allow refugees to have their asylum claims properly and safely considered – it would allow our members to do their jobs without political interference so they can provide the fair and empathetic asylum system that they aspire towards.”