4 Apr. (EUROPA PRESS) -The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, has hinted on Wednesday that he is ready to request the country's withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in the event that the Strasbourg Court blocks the draft law of the migration agreement signed with Rwanda that has as its star measure the deportation of asylum seekers.
"I think all the plans comply with our international obligations, including the ECHR, but I think border security and making sure we can control illegal migration is more important than being a member of a foreign court, because it is fundamental to our sovereignty as a country," he said during an interview picked up by British media.
Several Conservative MPs have previously pushed for the UK to leave the convention, fearing that its provisions would prevent the deportation of asylum seekers, while Sunak has resisted defying the court's orders. Other more moderate MPs have warned against abandoning the document, in force since 1953.
Also, Sunak has insisted that the government has "plans underway" to implement the Rwanda policy as soon as the project manages to overcome the opposition of the House of Lords, denying reports that there are no airlines willing to take asylum seekers to the African country.
The British head of government has defended his approach to dealing with the boats crossing the English Channel, while this year there have been a record number of crossings by small boats, figures for which he has blamed "the good weather".
The shadow minister for Migration, Labour's Stephen Kinnonck, has stated that "boat arrivals have increased this year and the Conservatives are stumbling around trying to blame someone other than themselves", questioning "when they will take responsibility and admit that they are failing on an astonishing scale", as the newspaper 'The Independent' has collected.
"Sunak must think we're stupid to tell us his plan on the skates is working when we've just seen a record number of Channel crossings over the Easter bank holiday weekend. (...) This is just another desperate attempt by the prime minister to appease factions of his own party and prevent an attack by right-wing Conservative MPs," he has stated.
The initiative, which is being processed in Parliament, dates from the time of Boris Johnson in Downing Street, but has not been launched after an 'in extremis' paralysis ordered in June by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and an already firm rejection by the British Supreme in mid-November. The conservative government of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has tried to solve the legal misgivings by signing a new treaty with Rwanda.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, warned that the British government's plan to deport irregular migrants to Rwanda is a violation of "vital human rights protections" and is "contrary to the basic principles of the rule of law."