Publications

Submission to Joint Committee on Human Rights Inquiry on Illegal Migration Bill

Date produced April 2023.

Below is a summary of the recommendations. You can also download the full document through the links provided.

The Commissions recommend:

• The NIHRC recommends that the present Bill should be revised to ensure that the principles of inalienability, universality and proportionality are embedded throughout, including in the language used, to prevent the demonisation and unjustifiable denial of human rights protection to particular groups of migrants.
• The NIHRC recommends that the purpose and provisions of the current Bill require immediate and thorough reassessment, which should take place through meaningful engagement. The result should ensure that all refugees, people seeking asylum and migrants arriving to the UK are processed and accommodated in compliance with human rights obligations, with particular focus on if, when and how individuals are transferred to a third country.
• The NIHRC recommends that the Committee explore with the Secretary of State what steps she has taken to assure herself that the Bill complies with Article 2 of the Windsor Framework and that the Human Rights Memorandum to the Bill be amended to set out in detail an assessment of the compliance of the Bill with Article 2 of the Windsor Framework.
• The NIHRC recommends that clause 1(5) of the current draft of the Bill is removed and that continued access to domestic courts for human rights violations is ensured.
• The NIHRC recommends that the retrospective application of the Bill is amended to take account of Article 7 ECHR and the principle of non-retroactivity.
• The NIHRC recommends that the Committee ask the Secretary of State to consider and detail her analysis of the compliance of Clause 4 and other provisions of the Bill relating to the inadmissibility of protection claims with Article 2 of the Windsor Framework.
• The NIHRC recommends that the Committee ask the Secretary of State to consider and detail her analysis of the compliance of the Bill’s provisions on detention, bail and access to judicial supervision of such decisions with Article 2 of the Windsor Framework.
• The NIHRC recommends that any action on behalf of refugee, asylum seeking and migrant children, including unaccompanied children, who arrive in the UK by any means should be guided by principles enshrined in international human rights law.
• The NIHRC recommends that the Committee ask the Secretary of State to consider and detail her analysis of the compliance of the provisions affecting children, including unaccompanied minors, with Article 2 of the Windsor Framework.
• The NIHRC recommends that clauses 21-28 of the current draft of the Bill are removed and that victims and potential victims of modern slavery and human trafficking continue to receive adequate support, in compliance with Article 4 ECHR.
• The NIHRC recommends that the Committee ask the Secretary of State to consider and detail her analysis of the compliance of the modern slavery provisions with Article 2 of the Windsor Framework.
• The NIHRC recommends that compliance with Article 34 ECHR and Rule 39 of the European Court of Human Rights is ensured within the Bill, for example by removing clause 49 of the current Bill.