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Should I stay or should I go? The role of the ECHR in UK Deportation cases
November 22, 2011
Who makes the final decision as to who should be deported from the UK? It would appear that these decisions have actually been left to the European Court of Human Rights yet this is now set to change from April 2012.
A Sky News article has revealed that the UK Courts will now have a final say on UK Immigration cases. This will bring an end to the European Court of Human Rights overruling the decisions of British judges.
Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke announced an agreement which is expected to be reached that will prevent individuals being able to repeatedly challenge deportation rulings. The current system is open to abuse whereby those previously subjected to deportation are routinely appealing to the ECHR thus buying an extra couple of years in the UK prior to their hearing being heard in the European Courts.
Kenneth Clarke does not feel that the Court is fulfilling its true ‘purpose’ and has stated:
‘We want the court back to its proper business as an international court which takes up serious issues of principle when a member state or its courts, or its parliament, are arguably in serious breach of the (European Human Rights) convention.’
Britain took over chairmanship of the Council of Europe, which oversees the court, at the beginning of November and will be in charge for six months. This arguably places the UK in an excellent position to steer the Court in the direction that it wishes:
‘A lot of member states have been pushing for similar things, and a lot of them believe a British chairmanship is the best time to deliver it, and they think we’re the best hope of drawing this to a conclusion‘ said Mr Clarke.
So it would appear that the UK are deciding the type of cases that the European Court of Human Rights should hear, thus preventing the rights of these individuals to have a hearing before an independent tribunal…surely, this within itself is a breach of Human Rights?
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