EU could hamper terror deportations
The government’s plans to deport foreign nationals involved in the promotion of terrorism could be hampered by a new EU directive.
Home secretary Charles Clarke intends to begin removal proceedings against as many as ten extremist clerics and supporters of terrorism this week.
But the European Commission will bring forward plans on Thursday to bar member states from returning people to countries where they could face torture.
The new directive, part of the common asylum and immigration policy, will also place a limit on the amount of time people could be detained before they are deported.
The government will have three months to decide whether to opt out of the new rules, or incorporate the directive within UK law.
Mr Clarke has already clashed with the UN over plans to deport fundamentalist preachers, and a potential clash with the EU will provide a further test of his resolve.
Last week, Manfred Novak, the UN human rights commission’s special investigator, described Mr Clarke’s list of “unacceptable behaviours” as reflecting a “tendency in Europe to circumvent the international obligation not to deport anybody if there is a serious risk that he or she might be subjected to torture”.
Mr Clarke responded that the rights of those killed and injured in the July 7th London bombings were “more important than the human rights of the people who committed those acts”.
Prime minister Tony Blair has threatened to amend or repeal parts of the Human Rights Act, which incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights, should judges seek to hold up the deportation process.
But the government will also face opposition to new security measures at home after a new campaign headed by Mayor of London Ken Livingstone stressed the importance of human rights.
Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti said human rights were “the bedrock of our beliefs not a convenience, a luxury or pick and mix”.
