Human rights laws are not supposed to protect illegal immigrants and conmen

RNLI helping yet more immigrants into Britain (Image: Getty) It means the liberal judges – not MPs – are effectively making the rules that are now being ruthlessly exploited, says barrister Michael Arnheim. The findings have refuelled Tory calls for Britain to quit the European human rights treaty. Mr Arnheim wrote: ‘In a nutshell, the problem is that, in practice, human rights law does not actually protect the mass of law-abiding citizens, who should be its beneficiaries, but instead benefits a motley assortment of special interest groups, including illegal migrants, bogus asylum seekers, terrorist suspects, disruptive protesters, strikers, and the beneficiaries of ‘mission creep’ and ‘politically correct’ and simply wrong and unjust court decisions.’ His report Fixing Human Rights Law, published by the independent Civitas think tank said that the government has slavishly accepted a ‘liberal’ misinterpretation of Strasbourg rules by the UK’s domestic courts. It advises small boats must be escorted back across the Channel and British beaches vigorously patrolled and suggests a revived wartime Home Guard could be deployed. The report also recommends that no applications for asylum or visas of any kind should be entertained from anyone already on British soil. Mr Arnheim, a sometime fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge, said that human rights laws are failing to take account of the rights of other citizens when claims are made. He said the ‘influx of huge numbers’ of illegal migrants has a ‘negative impact’ on the human rights of the mass of law-abiding citizens by putting pressure on housing, healthcare, schools and public finances. The independent report warned bogus asylum seekers ‘clog up’ the courts with ‘endless’ appeals at the taxpayers’ expense. It raises concerns over the way eco-zealots and other activists are dealt with by the courts, suggesting the ‘main problem’ is that the courts tend to view disruptive protests from the point of view of the protestors’ rights rather than from the point of view of the general public. The impact striking workers have by denying thousands of people their rights to healthcare, travel as well as harming the public finances is also raised. Mr Arnheim wrote: ‘It is important to realise that human rights law is about everybody’s human rights – the human rights of the mass of law-abiding citizens – and not just the rights of the small minority of special interest groups championed by the self-styled ‘human rights’ lobby.’ He added: ‘The ‘human rights’ lobby claim to be advocates of ‘the Rule of law’, but this usually amounts in practice to the rule of lawyers or judges.’ Mr Arnheim insists the government has the power to overturn judgements, including those made by the Supreme Court. He points to a 2017 ruling ‘any judicial decision can be revoked by Parliament’ through a statute and says it is the ‘nuclear weapon in Parliament’s arsenal’. ‘It also does not depend on the judicial decision in question being ‘wrong’ in any sense,’ he adds. Senior Conservative Danny Kruger, below, said activists and lawyers ‘who are bent on dismantling’ British traditions have been ’empowered’ by the rights culture. Tory MP Danny Kruger (Image: Ollie Millington/Getty) He said the continued membership of the European Convention on Human Rights ‘at odds’ with the Brexit vote to take back control. Writing in the Daily Express , he said: ‘If we are to win power again, my party needs to recognise we made a mistake in 2010 by continuing on the path set by Tony Blair. ‘We need a new framework that will defend individual rights and liberties, including those of refugees, that is founded on the essential principles of national sovereignty and Parliamentary democracy.’ Tory MP David Jones said some judgments of the ECHR are not binding on UK courts but they still follow them. He added: ‘The points the report makes are absolutely correct but it will take legislation to put the issue right because domestic courts will tend to gold-plate the judgments of the ECHR.’ Mr Jones said that he hoped no court would ‘act politically’ but had a ‘strong suspicion’ that there is an ‘increasingly liberal tendency within the bench that has that effect’. ‘It is a matter of some frustration that the will of parliament can be frustrated by the courts.’ It comes as the number of migrants intercepted crossing the English Channel so far this year has reached more than 22,000, according to official figures. Some 161 people were rescued in three dinghies at sea before being brought into the harbour at the Port of Dover in Kent on Thursday. And on Wednesday 238 people were picked up by Border Force vessels in four incidents. But dozens more migrants continued to arrive on Friday, including families with young children. They were brought into the port on Border Force vessels including the catamaran Typhoon in flat calm conditions at sea as people smugglers take advantage of heatwave conditions and low winds. The official total so far this year now stands at 22,079 in 452 boats according to the Home Office. Nearly 2,000 people have arrived in the first week of September alone – with 1,978 in 35 boats being rescued mid-Channel – an average of 56 people crammed in each craft.