The Home Secretary’s latest bid to tackle eviolence against women and girls “doesn’t go far enough”, a political commentator has warned.
Ahead of the announcement of the wider strategy, Shabana Mahmood has claimed the human rights of foreign sex offenders have been prioritised over the safety of women and girls.
As a result, in a new set of sweeping reforms to human rights laws, the Home Secretary has vowed to make deportations of foreign sex offender easier as well as strip them of refugee protections.
She told The Telegraph: “For too long, the human rights of foreign sex offenders have been prioritised over the safety of British women and girls.
“I share the public’s fury at such outrageous abuses of our legal system and will bring this circus to an end.
“We will introduce new laws to make this country and its citizens safer, ensuring perpetrators of sexual violence are swiftly removed from British soil.”
However, BrightBlue’s John Oxley argued on the People’s Channel the reforms are simply not enough.
With host Sophie Reaper pointing out one in four women in England and Wales will experience domestic abuse throughout their life, Mr Oxley agreed that it was a “huge societal issue”.
The Government will set out the sweeping reforms later this week
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“Some people might say that this is a great start, that the Home Secretary is making good headway, but a lot of other people are going to say that it doesn’t go far enough,” Sophie added.
“When we’re reading statistics like that, it’s not going far enough, a lot of people will be saying.”
“Absolutely,” the commentator concurred. “And one of the things that is mixed in here is this is a huge societal issue.
“We’ve seen in particular from the reports following the Sarah Everard case, a lot of police forces have been dealing with this very badly.
The Home Secretary said foreign criminals were being prioritised over the safety of British women and girls
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PA“Crimes aren’t necessarily being properly recorded, aren’t necessarily being properly investigated. So this goes far beyond simply removals.
“It’s about how our institutions engage with this and ultimately sort of how we as a society engage with this issue and how how it gets driven out at every level.”
In her justification for the reforms, Ms Mahmood cited a Polish serial criminal who was not able to be deported after he claimed to be a “father figure” to his nephew.
However, under the new legislation, article eight of the ECHR, the right to a family life, will be modified to ensure the safety of Britons will be placed higher than that of foreign offenders.
Article three, which is often cited by offenders to block extradition, bans torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
However, Ms Mahmood is currently liaising with EU nations on ways to prevent this clause allowing criminals to claims poor prison conditions or medical care in their home country is enough to dodge deportation.
Ms Mahmood is also working with 26 other EU countries to prevent article three of the ECHR being used to block deportation or extradition of criminals who claim that poor prison conditions or medical care in their home nation would breach their human rights.
She further added that the reforms will mean sexual predators will have “nowhere to hide”, ordering 43 police forces across England and Wales to establish rape and sexual offence investigation teams by 2029.