Suella Braverman has made her way to the British ambassador’s residence in Washington DC, upholding her official duties as Home Secretary. She is expected to address the appropriateness of the United Nations’ 1951 Refugee Convention in the contemporary world during an upcoming speech.
Suella will use this platform, a Washington DC think tank, to pinpoint the Convention as a remarkable accomplishment of its era. Despite this, she aims to highlight how changing interpretations have broadened the definition of refugees, leading to a surge in numbers.
Accusations were quick to follow from the Labour Party, characterizing Braverman’s stance as one where she’s essentially thrown in the towel on revamping the current asylum system. Critics like the shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper expressed disappointment in Braverman, accusing her of seeking for someone to place blame on, resorting to grandstanding in foreign territories.
Orchestrated in the aftermath of World War II to address the displacement of millions, the Refugee Convention’s cardinal principle states that refugees should not be returned to countries where their lives or freedoms are under threat.
The Home Secretary plans to express to her audience at the American Enterprises Institute that we inhabit a wholly different era, seven decades since the Convention was established. However, she asserts that relief should undoubtedly be offered to persecuted individuals from regions where being gay or being a woman incurs grave hardship.
Despite this, the existing system where individuals traverse through numerous safe nations, picking and choosing their destination for seeking asylum, has been described as implausible and unsustainable by Braverman.
The imminent Supreme Court hearing on the government’s proposed plan to mitigate small boat crossings adds to the anticipation around the Home Secretary’s speech. Although the government’s intent to deport individuals entering the UK illegally to Rwanda or another third country has been met with legal impediments.
The authorities at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) denounced the plan for its potential to deny genuine refugees protection and marked it as direct violation of the Refugee Convention.
However, some voices support Braverman’s stance, including Alp Mehmet from Migration Watch UK, who praised her for debating the conventions’ current state of affairs and recommended the UK withdraw from the Refugee Convention if substantial reforms were not introduced.
But not everyone holds this same view, as barrister and refugee rights campaigner Colin Yeo pointed out the unlikelihood of devising a new agreement with international support. Whichever direction the debate takes, a radical shift may be on the horizon for the UK’s approach toward refugees.
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