Keir Starmer plans to tighten the rules that allow migrants to resist deportation by claiming torture using the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
The prime minister has said the UK needs to reconsider how Articles 3 and 8 of the convention are interpreted. These articles safeguard individuals from deportation if it could lead to torture or inhumane treatment, or if it would disrupt their family life.
He suggested the Government is prepared to revise how the ECHR is implemented in the UK in order to more effectively remove rejected asylum seekers and foreign nationals with criminal convictions.
Officials pointed to a specific case involving a Brazilian child sex offender who avoided deportation by arguing under Article 3 that prison conditions in Brazil would be significantly harsher than those in the UK.
“I think there is a difference between someone being deported to summary execution and someone who is simply going somewhere where they don’t get the same level of healthcare or for that matter the same prison conditions,” Sir Keir told BBC Radio 4.
“Therefore I do think we need to look at issues like that again. I think there is quite an appetite to look at issues like that again.”
Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s chief executive, said: “Article 3 of the European convention on human rights – the ban on torture and inhuman or degrading treatment – is absolute. It is one of the most fundamental human rights protections and cannot be watered down or reinterpreted to suit political convenience.
“There is no grey area between acceptable and unacceptable ill-treatment. If removal would expose someone to conditions that meet the legal threshold of inhuman or degrading treatment, then the UK is legally and morally obliged not to proceed.
“At a time when refugees and migrants are already being scapegoated and treated as political bargaining chips, it is crucial that ministers reaffirm, not question, the UK’s commitment to the absolute prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment.”