Bureaucrats in Britain’s deep state are seeking to thwart the will of the people yet again, with thousands threatening to go on strike over the government’s long-delayed plan to deport illegal boat migrants to a third country.
Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, which represents nearly 16,000 civil servants at the Home Office and the Border Force — parts of Britain’s unelected, permanent government — are threatening to take industrial action in an attempt to prevent the elected element of government implementing relatively minor measures to stem the tide of the illegal boat migrant crisis that has run roughshod over authorities for years.
In response to the deluge of mostly unidentifiable illegal aliens arriving on British beaches, the government has long sought to deport those who enter the country via irregular means to the East African nation of Rwanda, which signed a deal with Boris Johnson’s administration last year to house the migrants as their asylum claims are considered — as opposed to providing hotel accommodation in Britain.
The notion of deporting those who enter the country illegally is apparently a bridge too far for the Neo-liberal staffed civil service, however, with the PCS union threatening to strike against the policy which they claim would be illegal.
The head of bargaining for the union Paul O’Connor told The Telegraph: “If the Government carry on in the way they have, we are going to have to consider an industrial response to it. We have taken a view that it cannot go on. The hostile environment has got to be dismantled. It is just not working. It is not an effective immigration system.
“Our members are at the sharp end of this day in, day out and have to work in horrendous conditions. There will be no stomach amongst our members for implementing the Rwanda deal and Illegal Migration Bill, and they will inevitably come to their trade union to see if there is recourse to stop it happening.”
The scheme to send illegals was first proposed last year by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson. However, before the plan could get off the ground, a European court stepped in to block the first flight at the last minute. Despite leaving the European Union, the UK is still bound by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) as it is technically a separate body from the EU and therefore Britain’s status was unaffected by Brexit.
The legal challenges have not only come at the European level, with pro-mass migration activists and organisations attempting to use British courts to derail the plan. So far, the Rwanda deportation policy has been approved by the High Court, and a secondary ruling at the Court of Appeal is expected to be given sometime in June.
In addition to making threats to strike in the press, Home Office workers have also reportedly openly opposed the deportation agenda of Home Secretary Suella Braverman in staff meetings and on internal message boards.
Responding to the threat of a civil servant strike over the scheme, a Home Office spokesman said: “Our staff work tirelessly to deliver ground-breaking policies, such as the Illegal Migration Bill. This will reform our immigration system and stop the boats, while still remaining party to the European Convention on Human Rights.
“We have always maintained that the UK and Rwanda Migration and Economic Development Partnership is lawful, including complying with the Refugee Convention, and last year the High Court upheld this. We stand ready to continue to defend the policy against legal challenge.”