SUELLA URGES REFORM OF 'ABSURD' MIGRANT SYSTEM

THE current asylum system is "absurd and unsustainable" and urgently needs to be reformed, Suella Braverman will declare today.

- Michael Knowles

Channel migrants should not be treated as refugees, she will argue, because they have travelled through safe countries such as France to reach the UK.

The Home Secretary will say the way the "global asylum framework" underpinned by the 1951 Refugee Convention interpreted "creates huge incentives for illegal migration" and must be reformed.

Ms Braverman will add during a keynote speech in Washington DC: "The status quo, where people are able to travel through multiple safe countries - and even reside in safe countries for years while they pick their preferred destination to claim asylum, is absurd and unsustainable.

"Nobody entering the UK by boat from France is fleeing imminent peril. None of them have 'good cause' for illegal entry.

"The vast majority have passed through multiple safe countries.

"In this sense, there is argument that they should cease to be treated as refugees when considering the legitimacy of their onward movement."

The Home Secretary will again question whether international refugee rules are "fit for our modern age" and demand reform, saying "we now live in a completely different time".

She has blasted the European Court of Human Rights, which oversees the European Convention on Human Rights, as "interventionist" and a "politicised court", accusing it of "thwarting" the first deportation flight to Rwanda.

And Ms Braverman will urge countries to come together to reform the 1951 Refugee Convention. She will warn the line between those fleeing war and those seeking a better economic future has been blurred by judges' interpretation of the treaty.