“We’ve seen the far-right grow and strengthen at a frightening rate … we can expect asylum seekers and refugees to bear the brunt of this … we must say loud and clear they’re welcome here.”
By Fran Heathcote, PCS General Secretary
We’re one month on from kicking the Conservatives out of government and with the new Prime Minister now confirming that the Rwanda scheme is “dead and buried”, everyone involved in the campaign to beat this cruel policy should be immensely proud. We must now use that same determination to demand that the new government goes further and carries out the bold reform needed to ensure that asylum seekers are treated with the respect they deserve.
It’s worth firstly reflecting on the journey that the union I lead, PCS, has been on in the fightback against the last government’s appalling treatment of asylum seekers and refugees. It was back in the autumn of 2021 that our members working in the Home Office came to their union to express deep concern at the attempts by the then Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, to prevent boat crossings in the English Channel.
PCS members had been asked to carry out the dangerous manoeuvre of turning around boats packed with asylum seekers back to France. The message from those members was clear: they were completely opposed to the policy, which they considered unlawful, morally reprehensible and utterly inhumane. In response, we began legal proceedings and just days before court hearings were due to begin, the policy was dropped.
This was an incredible victory, but we couldn’t rest on our laurels. The government came back with the Rwanda scheme, one of the most heartless and downright evil policies of the lot. Rather than opening our arms to the desperate and the vulnerable, that rotten government wanted to kick them onto a one-way flight to a country 4,000 miles away.
Again, PCS members in the Home Office took a stand, so we took up the fight once more. Working alongside other organisations, the fight went all the way to the Supreme Court and in November last year, they unanimously ruled that the policy was unlawful. This was another momentous victory and everyone who was involved and supported the campaign should be proud of the role they played.
The government tried once more to get flights off the ground, but they were thankfully booted out of Number 10 before they had the chance. With the Rwanda scheme now scrapped by the new government, we can say with immense pride that our fight against the policy has been a success. It’s a huge privilege to say that since PCS began the campaign to fight back, not a single flight containing a single asylum seeker has left for Rwanda.
Now our attention turns to the future, and we won’t be letting up in the pursuit of an asylum and immigration system that works in the interests of those that use it and those that deliver it. We’ve worked hard to develop policies that achieve this and ultimately save lives. Much of our attention has been focused on small boat crossings and the message to the government is that what’s required isn’t tinkering around the edges, but rather brave policy decisions that tackle the challenge head-on.
PCS has insisted that the best way to prevent boat crossings and preserve life is to implement our safe passage visa scheme. Working alongside Care4Calais – an organisation on the frontline – we developed a groundbreaking policy that would give asylum seekers a travel visa to enter the country and then enter the asylum process as normal. The lack of safe routes, with some country-specific and with many now no longer active, the only way for the vast majority of people to claim asylum is to risk the lives of them and their families in small boats. Our safe passage visa scheme puts an end to that.
Going further, we are in the process of doing further policy work on reforming the asylum process. The government has made a number of announcements that their priority is to cut down the asylum backlog and we of course will engage with them on this. Ultimately though, what our members are telling us is that they don’t just want to work in a more efficient system, they want a system that is fair, humane and treats people – asylum seekers and staff – with dignity and respect.
It’s also important to recognise the wider political context and the impact this may have on policymakers. We’ve seen the far-right grow and strengthen at a frightening rate, with tensions in society incredibly high. With that, we can expect asylum seekers and refugees to bear the brunt of this burgeoning threat. That’s why we must stand firm and say loud and clear that they are welcome here, and that the government must not go down the dangerous path of seeking to appease those that demonise the vulnerable.
Our movement has shown that when we take a stand against the politics of hate and division, we can win. We’re going to need that resolve more than ever as we seek to influence the new government and beat the tide of the rising far-right.
- By Fran Heathcote, General Secretary, PCS union. Follow her on x/twitter here
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