British PM tells BBC he wants to change how international law used in asylum cases
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Sir Keir Starmer wants to change how international law is interpreted, to stop unsuccessful asylum seekers blocking their deportation on the grounds they could be sent to worse prisons or healthcare systems.
The prime minister told the BBC he did not want to “tear down” human rights laws, but is ready to look again at article three of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects against torture and degrading treatment.
The prime minister said mass migration in recent years meant there needed to be a change, but those genuinely fleeing persecution should still be given asylum.
His comments came after his home secretary set out plans to tighten rules for migrants seeking indefinite leave to remain.
On the issue of deportation, he was asked by Radio 4’s Today programme about the example of a Brazilian paedophile who successfully claimed he would be treated worse in a Brazilian prison than he would in a British prison.
Sir Keir said there was a difference between deporting someone to “summary execution” and sending them to somewhere with a different level of healthcare or prison conditions.
He added “we need to look again at the interpretation” of a wide range of international laws by UK courts.
He warned that laws must be “applied in the circumstances as they are now” before adding that countries were experiencing “mass migration in a way that we have not seen in previous years”.
To meet this new challenge “we need to look at again at the interpretation of some of these provisions, not tear them down”, he said.
He added: “I believe that those genuinely fleeing persecution should be afforded asylum and that is a compassionate act.”
Pressed for details about what was blocking deportations of foreign criminals, Sir Keir cited Articles 3 and 8 of the ECHR – which ban torture and protect the right to private and family life respectively.
“But it’s more than that,” he said, pointing to the UN’s Refugee Convention, Torture Convention and Convention on the Rights of the Child as potential barriers.
Leading human rights lawyer Shami Chakrabarti said the number of cases where the courts have ruled someone cannot be removed because of inhuman and degrading treatment, were “very very rare”.
“To say that it’s inhuman and degrading because the situation is worse back home than it is in the UK has never been the test that has been employed by the UK courts,” she said.
Ministers were already exploring ways to tighten the interpretation of some aspects of the ECHR to crack down on immigration.
In May, the government’s immigration white paper promised legislation to “clarify” how the right to a family life in European human rights law should apply to immigration cases.
Before being made foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper ordered home officials to look into how courts used laws that halted deportations on torture grounds.
