Tory fury as Labour’s asylum block on overseas intercourse offenders leaves human rights loophole

Foreign sex offenders will be barred from the asylum system under new moves by Labour – but will still be able to launch human rights claims to stay in Britain.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced that attackers who commit ‘appalling’ sex crimes will no longer be eligible for protection here under the Refugee Convention.

But it emerged that human rights challenges – under the controversial ‘right to private and family life’, for example – will be allowed to continue.

Conservatives said the Government’s announcement neglected the ‘real loophole’ of human rights laws and dismissed it as a ‘pathetic gesture’ designed to win votes in this week’s local elections.

The Refugee Convention, an international treaty dating from 1951, allows countries to refuse asylum to criminals convicted of ‘particularly serious crimes’ such as terrorists and war criminals.

Current UK law sets out how offenders can be excluded from seeking refugee status if they have been imprisoned for 12 months or more.

Labour will now for the first time widen that definition specifically to include sex offenders. It will apply to any who are placed on the sex offenders’ register, even if they were handed less than 12 months’ imprisonment.

However, once a claim is refused, a sex offender will still be able to lodge a human rights challenge on the grounds they have family here or will face mistreatment if they are returned to their homeland, officials confirmed.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper (pictured in February) announced that attackers who commit ‘appalling’ sex crimes will no longer be eligible for protection here under the Refugee Convention 

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘This is a pathetic gesture in an attempt to win votes ahead of Thursday’s local elections.

‘The real loophole being exploited by foreign criminals to stay in the UK is human rights laws.

‘We Conservatives tabled an amendment to repeal the Human Rights Act for all immigration matters and require the deportation of all foreign criminals just a few weeks ago. But Labour shamefully voted against it.’

Labour also announced moves to speed up asylum claims lodged by those in taxpayer-funded accommodation, as well as by foreign offenders.

The immigration courts will face a statutory 24-week deadline to hear such cases in a bid to slash the number of people being housed by the Home Office at a current annual cost of £1.5 billion. The average wait for a hearing is 50 weeks with a backlog of nearly 42,000 cases.

Home Secretary Ms Cooper said: ‘Sex offenders who pose a risk to the community should not be allowed to benefit from refugee protections in the UK.

‘We are strengthening the law to ensure these appalling crimes are taken seriously. Nor should asylum seekers be stuck in hotels at the taxpayers’ expense during lengthy legal battles.’

There have been numerous cases in which sex offenders handed long sentences have used human rights laws to avoid removal from Britain.

This month the Mail revealed how UK courts ruled one rapist from Jamaica could not be deported because his crimes risked excluding him from the witness protection programme in his homeland.

Labour’s measures will be set out in new amendments to the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill going through Parliament.

Law Society president Richard Atkinson said the proposals to speed up asylum hearings were ‘laudable in theory’ but ‘unworkable in practice as the justice system is already struggling to cope with current levels of demand’.