Britain’s asylum policy to undergo major shake-up
Britain will overhaul its approach to human rights laws to make it easier to deport immigrants who arrive in the country illegally as part of a major change to its asylum policy.
Home Affairs Minister Shabana Mahmood will outline changes to how the European Convention on Human Rights will be interpreted by the courts on Monday.
“These reforms will prevent endless applications, stop last-minute claims and increase removals of those who have no right to be here,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement. he said.
In what the government claims is the most comprehensive overhaul of asylum policy in modern times, Mahmood will also announce plans to make refugee status temporary and quadruple the time refugees will have to wait for permanent settlement in Britain.
Britain’s Labor government is taking a tougher stance as it tries to curb clandestine migration, particularly through small boat crossings.
Polls show immigration is voters’ biggest concern, with the populist Reform UK party leading the polls by a wide margin.
The government said Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to family life, was being abused by migrants to delay their deportation from Britain.
He wants the new laws to clarify that family connection means immediate family, such as a parent or child, and to prevent people from “using dubious connections to stay in the UK”.
The report stated that the UK would work with like-minded countries to review the application of Article 3, which prohibits torture, and noted that “the definition of ‘inhuman and degrading treatment’ goes beyond what is reasonable.”
The government has said it wants to remain in the European Convention on Human Rights, amid calls from some in Reform and Britain’s Conservative Party to leave the convention altogether.
But the government’s tough stance on immigration has been criticized by charities, who say it is pushing desperate people further into poverty.
“These proposals will punish people who have already lost everything,” said Sile Reynolds, President of Asylum Rights Advocacy for Freedom Against Torture.
“Removing protections that prevent people from being sent back to their torturers is not who we are as a country.”
Starmer, a former human rights lawyer, said Britain was a “fair, tolerant and caring country” but in a more unstable world “people need to know our borders are secure”.
The government added that there would also be reforms to streamline the appeals system, speed up the deportation of criminals and prevent modern slavery laws being misused to block deportations.
