Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that point 11.4 of the Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules (10 December 2020) is compliant with the UK’s commitments to the UN Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights (Article 3).
Point 11.4 of the Statement of Changes is part of the overall clarification of the places and circumstances in which a Home Office officer is capable of receiving an asylum claim. It makes clear that an asylum claim cannot be received in the territorial waters of the United Kingdom.
I am satisfied the Rules are compatible with our international obligations. No individual will be refouled to a place where they would be harmed.