Leaving the European convention on human rights won’t stop the boats – but it will create other problems for the UK

By Joelle Grogan, King's College London

Faced with legal and practical challenges to getting planes off the ground to Rwanda, Rishi Sunak has threatened to leave the European convention on human rights (ECHR). The prime minister argues the convention, which is part of UK law through the Human Rights Act, is preventing him from “stopping the boats” and curbing illegal migration into the UK.

Sunak has vowed not to let a “foreign” court (the European Court of Human Rights) block the policy to send irregular migrants to Rwanda. The court intervened in June 2022 to stop a flight to from taking off.

But withdrawing from the ECHR would not, legally or in practice, give the government the power to “stop the boats”. It would, however, create a number of other headaches for the UK and its international reputation.

The key legal problem hindering the Rwanda plan is a December 2023 ruling from the the UK Supreme Court, which found that the policy was unlawful and that Rwanda was not a “safe” country for asylum seekers. This was because of the risk that people removed to Rwanda could be at risk of “refoulement” – being sent on to countries where they would face irreparable harm.

The ECHR protects against the risk of refoulement, but does not prevent the lawful deportation of a person who has claimed asylum, nor does it stop a country sending them to a safe third country. What this means is that if Rwanda is a safe country, on the evidence, then the policy of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda to be processed and settled would not necessarily violate the ECHR.

Parliament is currently debating legislation designating Rwanda as a “safe” country for asylum seekers, regardless of evidence to the contrary. If the bill becomes law, which could happen as early as this week, it will almost certainly be challenged before the European Court of Human Rights. .

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