Protection in the UK: the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill

On 30 October 2024, Bonavero Institute of Human Rights together with the Refugee Studies Centre and University College Dublin hosted a webinar focusing on protection in the UK in the context of an announced new bill by the government on ‘Border Security, Asylum and Immigration’.

The webinar was chaired by Başak Çalı, Professor of International Law and Head of Research at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights. It brought together an expert panel composed of Catherine Briddick, Andrew W Mellon Associate Professor of International Human Rights and Refugee Law at the Refugee Studies Centre, Raza Husain KC, Barrister at Matrix Chambers, Yasmine Ahmed, UK Director of Human Rights Watch and Cathryn Costello, Professor of Global Refugee and Migration Law at the Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin. 

The panel discussion focused on the existing legal frameworks for protection in the UK and their compatibility with the principles laid out in the recent Supreme Court judgment in the AAA [2023] UKSC 42 litigation, and the obligations of the UK under international law governing non-refoulement, non-penalisation, and non-discrimination under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Additional Protocol and the international human rights law. The panelists identified important incompatibilities between the existing domestic legal frameworks - most notably, the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 and Illegal Migration Act 2023 - with UK’s obligations under international law.  The opaque and the needlessly complex nature of laws governing protection and the need for their  revision in line with the Law Commission’s recommendations on this subject was also underlined.  The panel ended by reflecting on how the current legal framework can be reset to return to compatibility with international law and what taking a rights-protective and progressive approach to protection in the UK could and should involve.

Follow this link to watch the recording of the event.