Mr. Patrick Corrigan:

I thank the committee for the invitation to speak about our concerns regarding the UK Illegal Migration Act, including its impact on the Good Friday Agreement.

Amnesty International deeply regrets the passage of the UK Illegal Migration Act and its consequences for asylum seekers and victims of human trafficking. We consider that the Act is not compliant with international human rights law. The Act received royal assent in July. It changed UK law so that those who arrive in the UK irregularly will be detained and then removed, either to their home country or a third country - for instance, Rwanda is at the front of mind - and significantly constrains the scope for an affected person to challenge such action. During its rushed passage through the UK Parliament, Amnesty International repeatedly advised parliamentarians that the proposals were incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights, the United Nations refugee convention and other international standards. Indeed, the UK Illegal Migration Act is designed for the express purpose of enabling or allowing the UK to shirk its international responsibilities under the refugee convention. It risks, and perhaps seeks, conflict over the European Convention on Human Rights and the European courts. We are not alone in this determination of non-compliance. There is widespread agreement on this point among human rights and refugee organisations, including the United Nations High Commission on Refugees.

In September, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission issued a legal challenge regarding the Act against the UK Home Secretary and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and has been granted leave by the High Court in Belfast for a hearing due to commence at the end of January 2024. This analysis and legal challenge are directly relevant to the remit of this committee, given the potential breach of the Good Friday Agreement and the non-diminution commitment in Article 2 of the Windsor Framework. We note that the Human Rights Commission, like Amnesty International, had advised the UK Government that the legislation was incompatible with its international human rights obligations.

With respect to people in Northern Ireland, as members will know, under Article 2 of the Windsor Framework, the UK Government is required to ensure that there is no diminution of certain human rights and equality protections contained within the Good Friday Agreement resulting from the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union. The UK Illegal Migration Act effectively makes it impossible for people who arrive in the UK irregularly to seek asylum, even though safe and legal routes are almost non-existent. The Act also introduces sweeping new detention powers with very limited judicial oversight and would remove vulnerable people seeking refuge to a third country without a guarantee of them being able to seek protection. Amnesty believes that the Act is a breach of the UK’s domestic and international human rights obligations, specifically the 1951 Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights. As noted, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission also believes that there is also a breach under Article 2(1) of the Windsor Framework, with the Act falling short of the minimum standards required by EU law as specified under a number of EU directives and which should still be available to people in Northern Ireland.

It is clearly the view of the Human Rights Commission - and we agree - that the Act represents a diminution in those rights, contrary to the Windsor Framework. The Good Friday Agreement also commits to ensuring the equivalence of rights on the island of Ireland. The Act increases divergence of rights on the island and may have potentially serious implications for those crossing the Border, as has already been identified by our friends in the Committee on the Administration of Justice and the North West Migrants Forum.

In short, the UK Illegal Migration Act reduces the human rights protections available to people in all parts of the UK. With respect to people in Northern Ireland, rights available under the European convention and additional rights that were available while we remained part of the EU have now been undermined or removed. The Windsor Framework guarantees those rights must be protected for the UK to be able to continue to say it upholds the Good Friday Agreement.

The UK Illegal Migration Act is just one of a number of threats that the current UK Government poses to the human rights of people in Northern Ireland. The continued threat to tamper with the Human Rights Act, the question of the UK’s compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights and even its withdrawal from the convention remain significant threats to our rights and therefore to the integrity of the Good Friday Agreement.