Foreign criminals will no longer be able to argue 'right to family life' to stay
Foreign criminals will no longer be able to argue 'right to family life' to stay in Britain
Judges must stop blocking the deportation of foreign criminals from Britain because the right to family life is “not absolute”, Theresa May has said.
By Rowena Mason, Political Correspondent
11:43PM BST 09 Jun 2012
The Home Secretary will call a vote this week allowing MPs to decide how to “balance the interests” of prisoners’ and the wider general public.
She told the BBC that judges must “follow or take into account” the views of Parliament before coming to decisions on whether prisoners should be deported.
The right to a family life is enshrined in under European law. The rules allow hundreds of foreign criminals to delay or prevent deportation each year.
The Home Secretary said the Government is prepared to bring in new laws if judges ignore the views of Parliament, setting her on a collision course with the judiciary.
It came as Mrs May unveiled plans to stop people bringing their husbands or wives to live in Britain unless they have at least £18,000 in savings.
For every foreign child, they must have an additional £2,400 to stop families becoming dependent on benefits.
“It is important that we say you should be able to support yourselves and not be reliant on the state,” she told the Andrew Marr Show.
The new rules are aimed at helping to reduce immigration from the hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands a year.
Should foreign criminals be entitled to stay in Britain if they have a family here?
Yes
No
People wanting to settle in the UK are also facing language tests.
“It is important they are able to integrate,” Mrs May said.
The move is likely to be seen as a direct challenge to the judges who have previously interpreted Article 8 through the development of case law.
According to Home Office figures, last year 185 foreign prisoners successfully appealed against deportation after citing the right to family life.
Among those who who the right to stay last year after making human rights arguments included: .
• A 28-year-old Congolese man who was handed four years' imprisonment for causing grievous bodily harm with intent – by battering a man with a metal pole – but won his appeal against deportation because he had an infant son.
• A Lebanese man who was a prime mover in a £3 million fraud, and who admitted receiving £258,000 from the crime to fund a lavish lifestyle including a Mercedes, a Range Rover and expensive watches. The 40-year-old was jailed for 40 months but allowed to remain in the UK because of the effect that deporting him would have had on his children and wife, who was also jailed for her role in the fraud.
• A Pakistani man, aged 40, jailed for eight years for conspiracy to import Class A drugs and conspiracy to kidnap, whose lawyers argued that he should stay in Britain because of his "right to family life".
However officials made clear that if the courts failed to heed the views of Parliament, ministers could bring in new legislation to enforce their wishes.
The Sunday Times quoted a Government aide as saying: ''We expect the courts to take heed, but if they don't we will return with new measures which include the option of primary legislation,''
The move comes as the Government is preparing to impose a new ''financial independence'' rule intended to curb the spouses, children and other dependants of migrants coming into the country and becoming a burden of the taxpayer.
Immigration Minister Damian Green said: ''We will shortly be announcing a major overhaul of the existing family migration rules, to reduce burdens on the taxpayer, promote integration and tackle abuse.
''The reforms will protect the British public from foreign criminals who try to abuse human rights laws to avoid deportation.
''We plan to make it clear when the rights of the law abiding majority will outweigh a foreign criminal's right to family and private life.''
In October David Cameron also said the right to a family life granted by the Human Rights Act is not inalienable and can be overridden.
The Human Rights Act was introduced by Labour in 1998. While in opposition, David Cameron and his party repeatedly promised to scrap the act and replace it with a British Bill of Rights.
peaking at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, Theresa May argued that the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) is preventing the deportation of illegal immigrants and convicted criminals."We need to make sure that we’re not constrained from removing foreign nationals who, in all sanity, should have no right to be here," she said.
peaking at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, Theresa May argued that the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) is preventing the deportation of illegal immigrants and convicted criminals.
"We need to make sure that we’re not constrained from removing foreign nationals who, in all sanity, should have no right to be here," she said.
Foreign criminals will no longer be able to argue 'right to family life' to stay in Britain - Telegraph
