European governments including the UK have demanded permission to run Rwanda-style offshore migrant camps but stopped short of reforming the European Convention on Human Rights. The Telegraph has more.
Council of Europe member states, including Britain, have expressed frustrations over deportations being stopped on human rights grounds.
In a political declaration, they said: “It is important that states, including those that are exposed to mass arrivals, can pursue new approaches to address and potentially deter irregular migration.”
These approaches included return deals with other countries, offshore processing of asylum claims in another country and third-country “return hubs” for failed asylum seekers.
The declaration could form the basis for long-awaited changes to the ECHR, which has been accused of preventing hard-line [sic] migration policy.
Migrant deals must abide by human rights laws, said the declaration, which will increase pressure on domestic and European judges not to block schemes that have faced legal hurdles.
The Labour Government wants to negotiate ‘return hubs’ for failed asylum seekers with Balkan countries to try to curb small-boat crossings of the Channel.
ECHR judges granted a last-minute injunction to suspend the Tories’ Rwanda deportation scheme in 2022.
The Council of Europe, in Strasbourg, created the ECHR, which is given force in the UK through the Human Rights Act, in 1950.
It is enforced by domestic courts but also in some cases, usually for final appeals, by the European Court of Human Rights.
The Conservatives and Reform UK have vowed to pull Britain out of the Council of Europe if they win the next General Election.
In the declaration, the members of the human rights watchdog reaffirmed their “deep and abiding commitment” to the ECHR and the independence of its judges.
They added that the Convention was “a living instrument” that had to be “interpreted in the light of present-day realities”.
ECHR interpretation could lead to more concrete future reforms
The declaration falls short of rewriting the ECHR, which would be a lengthy and difficult process, but it does give political direction to its interpretation and could lead to more concrete reforms in the future.
Worth reading in full.
It all feels a bit pathetic: the assembled governments of Europe reduced to pleading with a bunch of extreme Left-wing judges – their own monstrous creation that they seem unable to rein in – to please, pretty please let us do some basic border protection and honour the wishes of our electorates. To which the aloof, unaccountable justices will presumably tell them to piss off and stop treading on their serene, Leftist independence.
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The governments have only themselves to blame because they control which candidates may stand for the ECHR. The ECHR doesn’t need reforming, the “living instrument” crowd who keeps creating abitrary, politically motivated misinterpretations of the corresponding charta needs to be shown the door and this would need to extend to the national judiciary as well.
Institutions like the judical appointments commission where left-wing “practitioners of law” select judges from a pool of left-wing brainwashed university graduates without any accountability needs to be abolished. Appointing people to public posts is one of the ‘classic’ functions of the executive. It must not be quangofied away from it.
The Prime Liar and his Party can’t possibly support this since they declared the Tories’ Rwanda Scheme to be tantamount to torture and genocide!
Ever since the idea of offshore processing was raised left wing lawyers, many of them Starmer’s friends or political associates, have sought to prevent the UK from taking every action to deter illegal immigration.
The media seems strangely quiet about Labour now demanding the right to use Rwanda schemes. I wonder if Burnham approves.
If Burnham approves, is it a good idea?
The reason for my rhetorical question was to suggest all of Starmer/Labour policies are contingent on the outcome of their leadership (sic) election. As others have observed the government is floundering – effectively impotent.