What the Ukraine war tells us about immigration

The UK has also done a lot for the European Union and has helped to turn it into the organisation it is today. Even though it has limited its involvement in EU affairs, it is hard to overestimate its role in uniting the European continent and the formation of the modern European Union.  

At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the UK also demonstrated its decisiveness in supporting Ukraine. It was Ukraine’s most valuable and reliable ally in securing arms, aid and rallying international support.

So, it is time to do the same in the sphere of migration. Obviously, all Council of Europe member states are free to identify their own migration needs and to enact their own policy. However, leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is not the solution for the UK’s migration problems. 

It is widely reported that the UK is planning on leaving the ECHR and the associated court. Prominent UK politicians and senior ministers have publicly called for the UK to end its membership of the ECHR. The UK government is still maintaining its planned policy of sending asylum seekers and illegal migrants to Rwanda where their claims will be processed. The first attempt to enact this policy, back in 2022, was originally subjected to a preliminary ruling from the ECHR which led to a temporary hold on the policy. 

A fresh attempt to push the policy forward was blocked by the UK Supreme Court in November 2023. It found the policy to be unlawful according to the ECHR. Meanwhile, the UK’s Illegal Migration Act 2023 – introduced primarily to prevent migrants from entering the country across the English Channel via “small boats” – also puts the country on a collision course with the ECHR.

However, just because the ECHR is being obstructive now does not mean that the UK should throw its hands up and leave in a huff. The wider challenges surrounding migration and the radically different political landscape in modern Europe means that the ECHR is out of date. We must not forget that this was a document created over 70 years ago. It was created in the aftermath of the Second World War; we had only just entered the Cold War. The ECHR was created because of the Human Rights abuses of WWII and the creation of the Iron Curtain. We live in a different world to that of the creators of the ECHR. There is scope for reform.

Reform of the ECHR is the way forward. Despite the issues we may have with the court, it has unquestionably been a success. It is the most effective human rights treaty in the world and has defined national law across Europe, creating a continent where rights are protected: the right to life, the prohibition of torture, the prohibition of slavery, the right to a fair trial, freedom of expression, and the right to protest. We grew up in a world where most Europeans can take these for granted. This is the influence of the ECHR – it codified what it means to be a free and democratic society.

Yet, even as we can look to reform the ECHR, the UK is not the only country in Europe now considering offshore processing deals. It has been reported that the German government is in the early stages of creating a similar “Rwanda-style policy”. If the German government can maintain such a policy within the framework of the ECHR, then the UK should be able to do so as well. At the very least, the UK could wait for Germany to finish its proposals and see how they match up against the ECHR. If Germany also runs into problems it will give us a clear mandate for reform. 

While the morality of such a policy is up for debate, there is no question that Australia’s similar programme was highly effective in drastically cutting the number of small boats making dangerous crossing attempts into Australia. Many European nations have taken note.

Migration is not an easy challenge and it requires a complex solution. However, by working together we can find the results that we want. It is time for Europe to confront this problem together – to create a unified front. Throwing away centuries of cooperation is not the answer.

Oleksii Goncharenko is member of parliament for Odesa, in Ukraine, and the Chairman of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe