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Starmer is battling to stem the irregular arrival of migrants in small boats across the Channel
“We need to look again at the interpretation of some of these provisions, and we’ve already begun to do that work in some of our domestic legislation,” he told BBC Radio

LONDON: Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed in an interview aired Wednesday to review how UK courts interpret international human rights laws as he bids to curb immigration levels and deport more migrants.
Starmer is battling to stem the irregular arrival of migrants in small boats across the Channel as well as the number of people coming through other regular legal channels.
Both have reached record levels in recent years, helping spur anti-immigrant sentiment and the rise of Brexit champion Nigel Farage’s hard-right Reform UK party.
Shortly after warning his center-left Labour party’s annual conference Tuesday that Britain faces a “battle for the soul of the country,” Starmer told broadcasters his government will reassess various rights protections for migrants.
“We need to look again at the interpretation of some of these provisions, and we’ve already begun to do that work in some of our domestic legislation,” he told BBC Radio.
“It’s the refugee conventions, it’s the torture conventions, it’s the convention on the rights of children.
“I’m not going to tear all that down. I believe in those instruments... but all international instruments, and this is long-established, have to be applied in the circumstances as they are now.”
The UK leader said those “genuinely fleeing persecution should be afforded asylum” but the country was “seeing mass migration in a way that we haven’t seen in previous years.”
Reform has vowed to scrap the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), while Starmer, a former human rights lawyer, favors reforming its application in Britain.
He told the BBC that Articles 3 of the ECHR — prohibiting torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and used by asylum seekers to stay in the UK or fight deportation — was an example.
“I do think we should look at that again,” the UK leader said.
“I think there’s a difference between someone being deported to summary execution and someone who is simply going somewhere where they don’t have the same level of health care, or... prison conditions.”
Starmer also noted that Article 8, stating “everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life,” would also be reexamined.
UK courts have interpreted it in some “exceptional circumstances” as providing the right to remain in Britain with relatives.
In a May policy paper, the government pledged new laws would “clarify” how to interpret it.
The interior ministry said in September that new legislation will reform “family immigration” rules so they are based on actions of “parliament, rather than ad hoc court decisions.”
In response to Starmer’s comments, Akiko Hart, director of rights organization Liberty, warned the approach risked “setting us on a path to undermining the rights of every person in Britain.”

ANTANANARIVO: Hundreds of protesters across Madagascar demanded the resignation of President Andry Rajoelina on Wednesday, taking to the streets for a fifth day of demonstrations that have shaken the government, local television broadcasts showed.
Spurred by the so-called youth-led “Gen Z” protests in Kenya and Nepal, the demonstrations have been the largest the Indian Ocean island has seen in years, and the most serious challenge Rajoelina has faced since his re-election in 2023.
The protests initially started in Antananarivo last week over nationwide water shortages and power blackouts but have since spread across the island, prompting Rajoelina to dissolve the government late on Monday.
His move failed to assuage public anger. A message on the protest movement’s Facebook page called for Rajoelina’s resignation as well as the dissolution of the election commission, the senate and the country’s top court.

PROTESTERS CHANT ‘RAJOELINA OUT’
The United Nations says at least 22 people have been killed and more than 100 injured since the protests started last week, figures the government rejects.
On Wednesday, protesters took to the streets in the capital and towns including Toliara, 925 km (575 miles) south of Antananarivo, chanting “get out” and waving flags and banners with the words “Rajoelina Out,” footage broadcast by privately-owned Radio Télévision Siteny showed.
They were escorted by security forces in vehicles, and other protesters in rickshaws, the footage showed.
A government spokesperson did not respond to Reuters requests for comment, however the president’s spokesperson Lova Ranoromaro said on social media that property had been destroyed and homes looted.
“We do not want a coup d’etat, because a coup d’etat destroys a nation, because a coup d’etat destroys the future of our children,” Ranoromaro wrote on her personal Facebook account.
Opposition leader Rivo Rakotovao said the main opposition parties’ alliance Firaisankina would not join any new government with Rajoelina in power, and called on him to step down.
“We fully support this action to rescue the Malagasy people and rebuild the nation, led by the Malagasy people and driven by the youth,” Rakotovao told a news conference.
Rajoelina first came to power in a 2009 coup. He stepped down in 2014 but became president again after winning the 2018 election, and secured a third term in a December 2023 poll that his challengers said was marred by irregularities.
In a message from the Vatican, Pope Leo said he was saddened by the violent clashes in the predominantly Christian nation.
“Let us pray to the Lord that every form of violence may always be avoided and that the constant pursuit of social harmony may be fostered through the promotion of justice and the common good,” he said in his weekly address.