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British Home Secretary Suella Braverman will ask world leaders on Tuesday to consider whether the United Nations Refugee Convention is “suitable for modern times” in a speech where she will question the treaty that has underpinned international humanitarian law for seven decades.
Speaking at the right-wing American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington, D.C., Braverman will claim that the court expanded the convention’s definition of “persecution” and increased the number of people eligible for refugee protection.
The speech was the strongest attack yet by a British government minister on the 1951 treaty agreed after World War II.
The treaty requires signatories – including the UK – to provide asylum to people fleeing persecution. It includes a provision requiring countries not to discriminate against those who cross their borders illegally before applying for asylum.
The provision is one of the government’s biggest legal hurdles in preventing clandestine boats from arriving and sending potential asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing.
In a speech on Tuesday afternoon UK time, Braverman will acknowledge that it is “extremely difficult” to be gay or female in “vast areas of the world”.
“It is right that we provide asylum where individuals are persecuted,” she would say.
“But if, in fact, simply being gay or a woman and fearing discrimination in a country of origin were enough to qualify for protection, we would not be able to sustain an asylum system.”
Under current rules, a large number of people seeking asylum in the UK have legitimate claims. In the year to June 2023, 70% of people seeking asylum in the UK were granted some form of refugee protection in an initial decision, according to government figures.
Braverman is also expected to attack countries’ interpretations of the convention’s definition of fleeing persecution. The treaty requires signatories to receive people “directly” from places where their life or liberty is threatened.
UK courts generally grant claims from people who spent time in other safe countries before arriving in the UK, an explanation echoed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
In his speech, Braverman insisted that asylum seekers should be obliged to apply in the first safe country they arrive in.
“The vast majority (asylum seekers) have passed through multiple safe countries and in some cases have been living in safe countries for several years,” Braverman said.
“In that sense, there is an argument that they should stop being treated as refugees when considering the legality of their going forward.”
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, a charity that supports refugees, said the world would betray “belief in common humanity and common rights” if Western countries pulled the drawbridge over those who have been tortured or persecuted.
“After experiencing the horrors of World War II, the international community chose to defend these principles, which are as relevant today as ever,” he said. “Abandoning them is not an option.”
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