Law will curb migrants’ ‘family rights’ claims

Bill to be unveiled by Dominic Raab will restrict illegal immigrants’ ability to fight deportation

MIGRANTS who enter the UK illegally face curbs under a new British Bill of Rights to their ability to fight deportation by claiming it breaches their human right to a family life.

Officials and lawyers are examining whether the legislation, to be unveiled next week by Dominic Raab, the Justice Secretary, could be used to fight claims to rights to a family or private life under article eight the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR).

Such claims account for around 70 per cent of cases where failed asylum seekers or foreign offenders challenge their removal or deportation from Britain. The majority of the 130 migrants who successfully challenged their removal to Rwanda this week are believed to have objected on that basis.

“It’s about narrowing the circumstances under which people could claim under article eight and successfully challenge a deportation,” a government source said.

The Bill will replace the Human Rights Act that enshrines the ECHR in British law. It is designed to give British courts more power to limit interventions in UK affairs by European judges without leaving the ECHR. It was a last-minute ruling by an out-of-hours European court of human rights judge on Tuesday night that grounded the first deportation flight, due to fly seven asylum seekers to

Rwanda. Mr Raab has signalled that the right of foreign offenders to use the article will be curtailed in the new Bill and officials are considering whether it could be extended to migrants who enter the UK illegally.

The Nationality and Borders Act, which is to take effect within weeks, will increase the prison sentence for illegal entry from six months to four years.

Under one option, the Bill could be used to ensure failed asylum seekers could not use article eight to challenge deportation if they met a certain threshold – such as length of sentence. A second option would set out a “legislative scheme” defining when deporting them in the public interest would outweigh their right to use article eight to fight removal to a third country.

A third option would prevent a decision to deport a failed asylum seeker unless it was “obviously flawed,” thus preventing courts from substituting their view for that of the Government.

Mr Raab has indicated that new Bill will give ministers powers to ignore last-minute injunctions imposed by European judges. He is proposing that because they are “not grounded” in the

ECHR but are part of the court’s internal rules, they would not have a legally binding effect under UK law.

The Bill is also expected to give the Supreme Court primacy over European judges, so that it would be the “ultimate arbiter” of human rights laws.

“The overriding aim is to make sure power lies in the hands of British courts … and what actually happens in the UK as a result,” a source said.

The Bill will also enshrine freedom of speech in law to protect against political correctness and the advance of European-style privacy laws.