LONDON: Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged to review how UK courts interpret international human rights laws as part of efforts to reduce immigration and increase deportations.
The UK leader is working to address both irregular Channel crossings by small boats and record numbers of migrants arriving through legal channels.
These migration patterns have contributed to rising anti-immigrant sentiment and the growth of Nigel Farage’s hard-right Reform UK party.
Starmer told BBC Radio his government will reassess various rights protections for migrants following his warning about Britain’s “battle for the soul of the country”.
“We need to look again at the interpretation of some of these provisions, and we’ve already begun to do that work in some of our domestic legislation,“ he stated.
The review will examine the refugee conventions, torture conventions, and convention on the rights of children.
“I’m not going to tear all that down. I believe in those instruments… but all international instruments, and this is long-established, have to be applied in the circumstances as they are now,“ Starmer explained.
He emphasised that those “genuinely fleeing persecution should be afforded asylum” but noted the country was “seeing mass migration in a way that we haven’t seen in previous years”.
While Reform UK advocates scrapping the European Convention on Human Rights, Starmer prefers reforming its application in Britain.
The Prime Minister specifically highlighted Article 3 of the ECHR, which prohibits torture and has been used by asylum seekers to remain in the UK.
“I do think we should look at that again,“ Starmer told the BBC.
“I think there’s a difference between someone being deported to summary execution and someone who is simply going somewhere where they don’t have the same level of healthcare, or… prison conditions.”
Article 8 of the ECHR, covering respect for private and family life, will also be reexamined following court interpretations allowing some migrants to remain with relatives.
The government’s May policy paper promised new laws would “clarify” how to interpret this provision.
The interior ministry confirmed in September that new legislation will reform “family immigration” rules to base them on parliamentary decisions rather than court rulings.
Liberty director Akiko Hart warned that Starmer’s approach risks “setting us on a path to undermining the rights of every person in Britain”. – AFP