
Campaign groups argued the plans to use ‘turnaround tactics’ on migrant boats went against human rights laws
The government has dropped its plans to turn back migrant boats attempting to cross the Channel from Calais, just a week before they were set to be challenged in court.
The policy would have meant that Border Force patrols could intercept boats and take them back to France. Campaigners against the plans said that this would be inhumane and a risk to life.
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), one of the groups against the plans, said the government u-turn was a “humiliating climbdown.”
The PCS, Care4Calais, Channel Rescue and Freedom from Torture had been ready to take the government to court over the proposals, with a three day hearing scheduled for May 3.
The groups argued that Border Force does not have the legal authority to push vessels back, and that if they did this would go against migrants’ human rights.
But the Home Office has now dropped the policy, with the Royal Navy taking charge alongside Border Force in responding to migrant boats in the Channel.
Neither will have the authority to use “turnaround tactics.”
The government has withdrawn its controversial refugee pushbacks policy just over a week before a judicial review on the matter, brought by 4 organisations including PCS, @Care4Calais @ChannelRescue @FreefromTorture was due to be heard in the High Court. https://t.co/dEJs9VOrxj pic.twitter.com/UlrZnTaNkB
— PCS Union (@pcs_union) April 25, 2022
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “This humiliating climbdown by the government is a stunning victory for Home Office workers and for refugees.
“PCS is proud to have brought this legal action alongside refugee groups in order to prevent this morally reprehensible and utterly inhumane proposal from ever seeing the light of day. There is little doubt that lives have been saved.”
But the Home Office has insisted its plans “fully” complied with “both domestic and international law.”
A spokesperson said: “The entire government is united in our efforts to prevent these lethal crossings and break the business model of the criminal gangs exploiting people.
var host="www.joe.co.uk"; var element = document.createElement('script'); var firstScript = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; var url="https://quantcast.mgr.consensu.org" .concat('/choice/', 'wFs6Tqd6-pgRC', '/', host, '/choice.js') var uspTries = 0; var uspTriesLimit = 3; element.async = true; element.type="text/javascript"; element.src = url;
firstScript.parentNode.insertBefore(element, firstScript);
function makeStub() { var TCF_LOCATOR_NAME = '__tcfapiLocator'; var queue = []; var win = window; var cmpFrame;
function addFrame() { var doc = win.document; var otherCMP = !!(win.frames[TCF_LOCATOR_NAME]);
if (!otherCMP) { if (doc.body) { var iframe = doc.createElement('iframe');
iframe.style.cssText="display:none"; iframe.name = TCF_LOCATOR_NAME; doc.body.appendChild(iframe); } else { setTimeout(addFrame, 5); } } return !otherCMP; }
function tcfAPIHandler() { var gdprApplies; var args = arguments;
if (!args.length) { return queue; } else if (args[0] === 'setGdprApplies') { if ( args.length > 3 && args[2] === 2 && typeof args[3] === 'boolean' ) { gdprApplies = args[3]; if (typeof args[2] === 'function') { args[2]('set', true); } } } else if (args[0] === 'ping') { var retr = { gdprApplies: gdprApplies, cmpLoaded: false, cmpStatus: 'stub' };
if (typeof args[2] === 'function') { args[2](retr); } } else { queue.push(args); } }
function postMessageEventHandler(event) { var msgIsString = typeof event.data === 'string'; var json = {};
try { if (msgIsString) { json = JSON.parse(event.data); } else { json = event.data; } } catch (ignore) {}
var payload = json.__tcfapiCall;
if (payload) { window.__tcfapi( payload.command, payload.version, function(retValue, success) { var returnMsg = { __tcfapiReturn: { returnValue: retValue, success: success, callId: payload.callId } }; if (msgIsString) { returnMsg = JSON.stringify(returnMsg); } event.source.postMessage(returnMsg, '*'); }, payload.parameter ); } }
while (win) { try { if (win.frames[TCF_LOCATOR_NAME]) { cmpFrame = win; break; } } catch (ignore) {}
if (win === window.top) { break; } win = win.parent; } if (!cmpFrame) { addFrame(); win.__tcfapi = tcfAPIHandler; win.addEventListener('message', postMessageEventHandler, false); } };
makeStub();
var uspStubFunction = function() { var arg = arguments; if (typeof window.__uspapi !== uspStubFunction) { setTimeout(function() { if (typeof window.__uspapi !== 'undefined') { window.__uspapi.apply(window.__uspapi, arg); } }, 500); } };
var checkIfUspIsReady = function() { uspTries++; if (window.__uspapi === uspStubFunction && uspTries < uspTriesLimit) { console.warn('USP is not accessible'); } else { clearInterval(uspInterval); } }; if (typeof window.__uspapi === 'undefined') { window.__uspapi = uspStubFunction; var uspInterval = setInterval(checkIfUspIsReady, 6000); } // This callback is triggered on each page load __tcfapi('addEventListener', 0, function(tcData, success) { if (success && (tcData.eventStatus == 'useractioncomplete' || tcData.eventStatus == 'tcloaded')) { processCmpData(tcData); } }); function processCmpData(tcData) { // Flag that CMP has been processed. consentManager.cmpProcessed = true; // Permutive disabling needed? if (tcData.purpose.consents[1] && tcData.purpose.consents[3]) { consentManager.permutive.isAllowed = true; } if (consentManager.isAllowed('permutive')) { window.localStorage.removeItem('permutive-opt-out'); } else { window.localStorage.setItem('permutive-opt-out', 'true'); } consentManager.setUserConsent(tcData); if(consentManager.isAllowed('google')) { (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start': new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l="+l:"';j.async=true;j.src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id="+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f); })(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-NTW9BPH'); } // Consent String is needed as DFP target consentManager.setConsentString(tcData.tcString); consentManager.trackPublisherConsentLevel(tcData.publisher.consents); consentManager.trackVendorConsentLevel(tcData.vendor.consents); /** * According to Google policies, if Publisher Purpose 1 is revoked, we should not display ads at all * Check https://support.google.com/admanager/answer/9805023?hl=en for more information * Here we update the flag that points if ads should be rederer or not. */ consentManager.hideAds(tcData.purpose.consents[1]); // Posts tagged as sensitive shouldn't be showing any ads. Since we have a way to control ads viewability through // the consent manager, it's easy to check for the posts tags and flagged if they should shown or not. // According to Google policies, if Publisher Purpose 1 is revoked, we should not display ads at all // Check https://support.google.com/admanager/answer/9805023?hl=en for more information if (consentManager.hasBeenProcessed() && consentManager.displayAds) { consentManager.renderAds(); } // If consent was processed once the page was loaded, there are some ads that may not appear. Let's run prebid again. if (typeof executeParallelAuctionAlongsidePrebid !== 'undefined' && !consentManager.prebidProcessed && consentManager.displayAds) { executeParallelAuctionAlongsidePrebid() } // Facebook and Twitter are non IAB vendors, so we need to check their consents using a different callback __tcfapi('getNonIABVendorConsents', 0, function(consent, success) { if (success && consent.gdprApplies) { consentManager.setUserNonIabConsent(consent); } }) if (!consentManager.sentEventFbPixel && consentManager.isAllowed('facebook')) { !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n; n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script','//connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '1294117580618248'); fbq('track', "PageView"); fbq('track', 'ViewContent'); consentManager.sentEventFbPixel = true; } if (!consentManager.sentEventTwPixel && consentManager.isAllowed('twitter')) { !function(e,t,n,s,u,a){e.twq||(s=e.twq=function(){s.exe?s.exe.apply(s,arguments):s.queue.push(arguments); },s.version='1.1',s.queue=[],u=t.createElement(n),u.async=!0,u.src="https://static.ads-twitter.com/uwt.js", a=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0],a.parentNode.insertBefore(u,a))}(window,document,'script'); // Insert Twitter Pixel ID and Standard Event data below twq('init','o1f6l'); twq('track','PageView'); consentManager.sentEventTwPixel = true; } }