Rwanda judgment welcomed

Unions repeated their call for safe passage as a compassionate alternative after the Supreme Court ruled the government’s Rwanda asylum plan is unlawful.

Last year, the PCS public and commercial services union, Care4Calais and Detention Action campaign groups, and eight refugees launched a judicial review to challenge the policy to deport refugees to Rwanda without allowing due consideration of their asylum claims. PCS head of bargaining Paul O’Connor said the union welcomed the Supreme Court decision “as a vindication of our position”.

He added: “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.”

The NEU education union welcomed the judgment and said it was shocked by prime minister Rishi Sunak’s “apparent refusal to respect the ruling and accept its implications”. NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said: “It is simply not credible or ethical for the prime minister to threaten to continue with further treaties with Rwanda."

Dr Jan Wise, chair of the medical ethics committee of the BMA doctors’ union, said the Court’s decision sent a strong message to the government that “this policy must be scrapped and not be used as a reason to pull Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights, which would have far-reaching consequences”.