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.
Senior British civil servants recently launched a legal appeal against the government’s controversial Rwanda deportation legislation.
The First Division Association (FDA), the trade union which represents the United Kingdom’s senior civil servants, said the new legislation could effectively force its members to break both international law and the Civil Service Code, the legally-underpinned rule book which governs the bureaucrats’ responsibilities.
“Civil servants should never be left in a position where they are conflicted between the instructions of ministers and adhering to the Civil Service Code, yet that is exactly what the government has chosen to do”, said the FDA’s general secretary, Dave Penman.
The UK government recently passed legislation to overrule a decision by the country’s Supreme Court which found that Rwanda was not a safe place to send genuine refugees, and enable ministers to ignore a temporary order from the European Court of Human Rights to halt flights amid an ongoing case.
In practice, argues the FDA, this could see senior civil servants being ordered by ministers to prepare flights even before judges have reached a decision, constituting a breach of international law which in turn would breach the Civil Service Code.
“Civil servants know that they have to support the government of the day and implement policy, regardless of their political beliefs, but they also know they have a legal obligation to adhere to the Civil Service Code,” said Penman.
“Faced with a government that is prepared to act in this cowardly, reckless way, it is left to the FDA to defend our members and the integrity of the civil service.”
