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The Supreme Court, sitting in Manchester, has heard argument in R (Marouf) v. Secretary of State for the Home Department, a case on the extraterritorial effect of the public sector equality duty (“PSED”). The case involved a judicial review challenge to the establishment of the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (“the Scheme”). The Scheme was established in January 2014 in response to the Syrian refugee crises. As initially established, it sought to assist the most vulnerable displaced Syrians through resettlement to the United Kingdom. The original Claimants were all Palestine refugees, formerly resident in Syria, but displaced by the civil war and receiving assistance from UNRWA in Lebanon. They commenced a judicial review challenge to the legality of the Scheme on the grounds that their exclusion on the grounds of their nationality was unlawful. The Scheme was later extended, in 2017, to cover the most vulnerable persons displaced from Syria of any nationality. The Claimants maintained their challenge on the grounds that, since the Scheme operated on the basis of referrals from UNHCR to the UK, and they fell under the auspices of UNRWA, they were in effect still excluded from the Scheme since the mandates of the two organisations were mutually exclusive.
In the Supreme Court the single issue was whether the PSED applied with extraterritorial effect so as to require consideration in relation to the establishment of the Scheme.
David Blundell KC represented the Secretary of State, led by Sir James Eadie KC.
