Rishi Sunak May Exit Human Rights Treaty To Push Immigration Plan: Report

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak may withdraw from an international human rights treaty with an aim to crack down on illegal immigration in the country. The UK PM is prepared to pull out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in a bid to curb migrant arrivals, the Sunday Times reported.

The UK has been warned that 65,000 illegal migrants are expected to enter the country this year. According to these estimates, illegal immigration in the UK will rise by 50 per cent this year.

Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman have started working on a new immigration legislation after the warning. The new laws could be unveiled within weeks, Bloomberg reported.  

The pair are also prepared to withdraw from the ECHR before the general election if judges in Strasbourg rule that the new plans are unlawful, the Times report said.

A threat to withdraw from the ECHR would draw a sharp dividing line between Sunak's Conservatives and the opposition Labour party — underlining the prime minister's hardline stance on immigration.

Before being elected as the Prime Minister in October last year, Rishi Sunak had vowed to fix the "broken" asylum systems in the UK and stop the illegal boat crossings from France.

He had also announced a five-step strategy to clamp down on illegal immigration, with a promise to end the government's backlog of asylum applications by the end of next year.