BRITAIN: The British Conservative leader, Mr Michael Howard, has insisted his proposals to cut immigration are not racist and would result in more "genuine refugees" being settled in the United Kingdom.
However, he declared Britain was at "a turning point" yesterday when he unveiled a package of measures designed to dramatically reduce the number of people - currently running at an average of 153,000 - settling in Britain each year. The Tory leader invoked the terrorist threat in a world changed by the September 11th attacks in the US as he claimed Conservative plans to "break the link" between people arriving in Britain and claiming asylum would also help smash the criminal gangs engaged in people smuggling.
Putting immigration centre-stage in Britain's ongoing pre-election campaign, Mr Howard, himself the son of a Romanian immigrant, said a Conservative government would set an annual limit on immigration, including a quota system for asylum-seekers, deploy 24-hour security at ports to prevent illegal immigration, and introduce an Australian-style points system for work permits. Combined with new rules to stop bogus marriages, Mr Howard maintained this would enable Britain to move forward "as a confident, diverse yet united society" while creating "a fairer, more humane asylum system".
In addition, the Tories would take new powers to permit the immediate removal of asylum-seekers whose claims were clearly unfounded, and to detain in existing asylum centres claimants without documents, at least until identities were established.
The Conservatives were warned their proposals would run counter to European law, while charities said the plans would put refugees' lives at risk.
However, the shadow home secretary, Mr David Davis, confirmed the Conservatives would derogate from the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees, which he described as a "product of the cold war".
Declaring that a Conservative government would no longer consider asylum applications from people already in the UK, Mr Davis said they would instead take a specific number of "genuine" refugees already in the care of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
Mr Habib Rahman, chief executive of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said he was shocked by the proposal to withdraw from the convention: "The political parties continue to focus on abuse of the asylum system at the expense of stressing the human rights protection it affords."
While stressing the contribution made by immigrants to the economy and culture of Britain, Mr Howard insisted: "I think most people would agree that Britain has reached a turning point. They know that our communities cannot successfully absorb newcomers at today's pace."