In our legal Briefing Paper No 8.55 published in August 2011 I set out the views of Migration Watch in response to the initial consultation paper issued by the Commission on Human Rights. For all the reasons set out in that paper we expressed ourselves to be strongly opposed to a new Bill of Rights. On the basis of experience since the Human Rights Act 1998 was brought into force in 2000 we concluded that in ways which the briefing paper summarised, the direct availability of the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in litigation in the United Kingdom courts had been detrimental to effective immigration control. We have noted in legal Briefing Paper No 8.62 the new Immigration Rules which came into force on 9 July 2012 with the objective of restricting the ability of foreign convicted criminals to avoid deportation by reliance on the right to family life contained in Article 8 of the ECHR. It remains to be seen whether the new Immigration Rules will achieve the desired effect.
To read the full document go to Briefing Paper No 8.64