Lord David Cameron, a former Conservative Prime Minister, has said that leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is not “necessary” to prevent small boat crossings, amidst Tory divisions over the UK’s membership in the treaty. However, Cameron conceded that a returns agreement with France to break up people-smuggling gangs is “simply not possible” due to “the situation we’re in”.
Cameron’s comments came as Rishi Sunak’s Bill aimed at blocking further setbacks to the government’s controversial Rwanda deportation scheme passed through Parliament after months of wrangling between MPs and peers. While the legislation is now poised to become law, ministers are braced for legal challenges to the plan, and the judiciary has made 25 courtrooms available to deal with cases.
Meanwhile, Home Secretary James Cleverly defended the Rwanda scheme, despite criticism from the ECHR, which he “values enormously”. Cleverly argued that it is “out of step” to say that a nation-state government cannot manage its own borders or make decisions about who does or does not live in its own country.
In the past, the Supreme Court ruled that the Rwanda scheme was unlawful, finding grounds for believing that migrants sent to Kigali would face a risk of ill-treatment as a result of being returned to their country of origin. Refoulement, forcing an asylum seeker to return to a nation where they are likely to face persecution, is prohibited by international treaties, including the ECHR, the UN Refugee Convention, the UN Convention against Torture, and the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Cameron stated that while he had a “totally different situation” when he was Prime Minister because people could be returned directly to France, this is no longer possible. He attributed this to Brexit and “the attitude of others”.
Despite the divisions within the Conservative Party, the Rwanda deportation scheme remains a controversial policy, with legal challenges expected.
