The UK Supreme Court will today announce its decision on the senior civil servants’ union (FDA)’s legal challenge to the government’s plan to start deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda. This decision comes in the wake of a series of legal challenges and a change in the proposed dates for the start of controversial flights.
The subject of this action is the FDA’s concerns that the government’s plan to deport some asylum seekers to Rwanda may force authorities to break the law.
Late last month, Justice Chamberlain ordered the Prime Minister’s Office and the Home Office to inform the court of the earliest date they intended to begin deportations. The order was issued in the context of a lawsuit brought by the FDA union, in which government lawyers announced, on May 29, that they “do not intend to carry out forced deportations to Rwanda before the general elections on July 4, 2024.”
At a hearing starting on Monday in London over another related legal challenge brought by the Asylum Assistance charity, the High Court was told that the first flight is now scheduled for July 24.
“The defendant confirms that he intends to carry out the deportations with a flight to Rwanda on 23 July 2024, and no earlier,” Edward Brown KC, representing the Home Office, said in written statements.
However, later in the hearing, another date, 24 July, was brought forward after an “operational update”. Judge Justice Chamberlain noted that the Home Office had “made a number of statements” about the date of the first flight, and added that the legal challenges were “all subject to the outcome of the general election.”
In the lawsuit brought by the FDA union, the judge previously found that the government had not provided “sufficient clarity” on the start of the flights, resulting in a court order to force CEO Rishi Sunak to report a specific date for the start of the flights. of deportations.
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