Britain set to finally close 'chicken nugget migrant' loophole at crunch ECHR summit

Britain will vow to finally close an infamous loophole which has let illegal migrants and foreign criminals stay in the UK at a crunch ECHR summit.

A declaration is expected to be published today by the Council of Europe, the organisation that oversees the controversial European Convention on Human Rights.

The 46-member council is set to agree on a change to how human rights laws are interpreted - which could finally stop cases like the "chicken nugget migrant".

That case saw an Albanian criminal allowed to stay in Britain - partly because his son refused to eat foreign chicken nuggets.

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The ECHR's Article 3 protection against "inhuman or degrading treatment" and Article 8's right to a family life are the two areas in the spotlight.

Both have been used by human rights lawyers to stop people with no right to be in Britain being sent home.

Labour's former human rights lawyer Attorney General Lord Hermer went on to hail the Convention for its "meaningful protections for ordinary people in Britain".

"The convention is 75 years old, but it has never been static," he said. "It has shown its ability to adapt and to respond to new challenges.

"That is why this country is proud to be part of a process to work with colleagues across the continent to modernise how the ECHR works, including how to protect our borders in the national interest, to ensure the convention endures for another 75 years and beyond."

He has previously compared critics of the ECHR to the Nazis in comments he later admitted were "clumsy".

Of the three most popular parties in Britain according to the latest national polling, only Labour is committed to staying inside the ECHR.

Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary, will be representing the UK at the summit in Moldova.

READ MORE ON THE MIGRANT CRISIS:

• Horrific moment asylum seeker knocks woman unconscious after she rejected him on night out
• US blows lid on UN 'replacement' plot to stop illegal migrants being deported from Britain
• More than half a MILLION migrants massing in north Africa ready to cross into Europe

She called for a "common sense approach that reflects the realities of today" ahead of the talks.

The Foreign Office, meanwhile, has said a "more modern" interpretation of the ECHR is set to be agreed.

At the meeting, ministers will also discuss plans to send thousands of rejected asylum seekers to "third-country hubs".

The Conservatives in power had tried to do this through the Rwanda plan - but were stopped by a legal challenge by illegal migrants before Sir Keir Starmer scrapped it entirely on his first day in No10.

So far, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said the Home Office is in "active negotiations" with several countries, but no deals have been confirmed.

Over in Europe, the EU is said to have discussed 12 possible countries: Armenia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Libya, Mauritania, Montenegro, Rwanda, Senegal, Tunisia, Uganda and Uzbekistan.

Return hub-backers have stressed these "third countries" are needed because migrants who are ordered to leave end up staying regardless.

Statistics from Eurostat, the EU's statistical office, show that over the seven years to 2023, as many as 500,000 migrants were ordered to leave the EU each year, but fewer than half did so.

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