Failing to live up to its "moral obligation" to accept a fair quota of refugees from Syria could damage Prime Minister David Cameron's plans to renegotiate the UK's relationship with the EU, according to European Commission President Romano Prodi, which suggests David Cameron's refugee quota u-turn will be used to push through reforms.
PETITION: Accept more asylum seekers and increase support for refugee migrants in the UK. We must help. https://t.co/f5fmiezv98
— Unite the union (@unitetheunion) September 6, 2015
As part of his renegotiation plans to reform Britain's role within the EU, David Cameron wants to relinquish power Brussels holds over the UK by introducing a 'red card' for national parliaments to work together to block unwanted European legislation.
Look at the pic-then sign the petition:Stop allowing economic migrants into UK https://t.co/IkQnSC16mx #migrantcrisis pic.twitter.com/MTD6L2GTn9
— Tory Totty Online (@ToryTottyOnline) September 6, 2015
This includes less interference from institutions, including the European Court of Human Rights. In fact, as soon as a new majority Conservative government was formed, the PM revealed his intention to scrap the Human Rights Act.
The Human Rights Act was introduced by the Labour Party in 1998. Articles from the act include: the right to liberty, the right to life, right to privacy, right to a family life, freedom of expression, freedom from torture, inhuman and degrading treatment and the right to a fair trial; and it hasn't been without its controversy.
There have been cases in the UK where a decision under the Human Rights Act has led to a grievance with Britain's legal system. In 2003, a failed asylum seeker ran over a young girl in an uninsured car. He left her under the wheels of the vehicle as he fled the scene. Aso Mohammed Ibrahim was jailed for four months and won his case not to be deported because he had children in the UK and deportation would breach his right to a family life under Article 8.
Meanwhile, a convicted rapist who was jailed for ten years after holding a knife to a pregnant woman's throat avoided deportation to Somalia after immigration judges argued that it would breach his right to family life — despite not having a wife or child living in the UK.
Campaigners say plans to scrap the Human Rights Act pose the "greatest threat to freedom in Britain since the Second World War." Many foreign criminals have used the Act to avoid deportation, at a time when Europe faces the biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War.
David Cameron is to reveal the government's plans to resettle thousands of Syrian refugees when parliament reconvenes but still refuses to take part in the quota system proposed by European Commission president Jean Claude Juncker.
Cameron says the UK is responding within the spirit of the EU and living up to is moral obligations, in the hope the door remains open to renegotiate Britain's relationship with the European Union.
