Cameron rules out ECHR exit over small boats
LEAVING the European Convention on Human Rights is not “necessary” to prevent small boat crossings, Lord Cameron said.
Ministers are braced for legal challenges to the Rwanda plan and the judiciary has made 25 courtrooms available to deal with cases.
The Prime Minister previously hinted he would be willing to leave the ECHR if it prevented him from implementing his policy of deporting asylum seekers to east Africa.
But the Foreign Secretary, who was yesterday in Kazakhstan as part of a tour of central Asia, said: “I don’t think it’s necessary to leave the ECHR, I don’t think that needs to happen to make this policy work.”
Refoulement, forcing an asylum seeker to return to a nation where they are likely to face persecution, is prohibited by a number of treaties, including not just the ECHR but the UN Refugee Convention.
On whether he would have pursued the policy while he was prime minister, he said: “We had a totally different situation because (we) could return people to France.
“Now, I’d love that situation to be the case again. People land on a beach in Kent, you take them straight back to France, you therefore break the model of the people smugglers. That’s not available at the moment.”
Asked whether this was because of Brexit, he said: “Because of the situation we’re in because of the attitude of others and all the rest of it.”