Conservatives plan to remove judges from asylum appeals
The UK Conservative Party has proposed leaving the European Convention on Human Rights and abolishing the immigration tribunal system, shifting decisions to the Home Office. Refugee groups call it an attack on justice.
Refugee groups and lawyers have condemned Conservative proposals to strip judges of their powers to rule on asylum seekers’ appeals against deportations. In a speech on Tuesday, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said a Conservative government would quit the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and abolish the judicial tribunal system used by claimants to appeal removal. Immigration decisions would instead be made by the Home Office, allowing migrants a quick internal appeal, and legal aid would be scrapped for all immigration cases.
The policy has dismayed human rights advocates. Sile Reynolds, head of asylum advocacy at Freedom from Torture, described the proposals as an attack on the concept of justice and equality under the law, noting that for survivors of torture, a wrong decision can be fatal. Imran Hussain of the Refugee Council said the proposals would remove democratic safeguards, arguing that no British government should be free to mark its own homework. Mark Evans, president of the Law Society of England and Wales, said scrapping immigration tribunals removes independent oversight and accused Philp of damaging the judiciary by alleging bias without allowing judges to respond.
The Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA) accused Philp of fostering a climate of hostility toward lawyers and the judiciary. In his address to the right-leaning Policy Exchange thinktank, Philp criticized judges, claiming some worked with open border campaigners, and highlighted a judge who allowed a Palestinian family to stay under a scheme meant for Ukrainian refugees, and another who let an Albanian burglar with 50 convictions remain because his offending was “not very extreme.”
Philp said the Tory plans mean most people arriving illegally—by small boats or in lorries—would not be allowed to claim asylum. However, he stopped short of Reform UK’s stance to ignore the principle of non-refoulement. For cases of acute risk, the home secretary could send asylum seekers to a safe third country like Rwanda. Meanwhile, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is replacing the two-tier tribunal system with a single independent appeals body to fast-track cases, and Reform UK proposes a law preventing any consideration of asylum claims from those entering illegally.
