Former judges criticise UK's "too slow" response to migrant crisis

The former President of the UK Supreme Court, and the former President of the European Court of Human Rights, are among 300 retired judges and other senior lawyers who have signed an open letter criticising the UK Government's "slow and narrow" response to the migrant crisis.

Lord Phillips and Sir Nicolas Bratza were joined among others by four former Law Lords, five retired Lords Justices of Appeal, and Lord Macdonald, formerly Director of Public Prosecutions.

Their letter describes the UK's offer to accept 20,000 Syrian refugees over five years as "too low, too slow and too narrow". Interviewed on BBC Radio 4, Catriona Jarvis, a retired judge, did not specify what number the UK should be taking but said there were various formulae that could be applied. 

Describing international protection as "a shared duty, a shared responsibility", she pointed out that around the Balkan crisis the UK was receiving around 75,000 refugees a year. "It was within our capability. We managed it well," she said, adding: "We are the sixth or seventh richest country in the world. It is not beyond our capabilities to make the necessary changes to receive our share."

The letter also calls for the establishment of safe, legal routes into the EU, and the suspension of the "Dublin" system, under which asylum seekers must claim asylum in the first EU country in which they arrive, since in frontline states "reception conditions have collapsed and determination procedures are rudimentary”. 

It suggests a system of “humanitarian visas” so that people with a moral right to protection are not "driven into the hands of people smugglers" and forced to undertake dangerous journeys to reach Europe.

The Government said it had been "at the forefront of the global response", providing £1bn in aid to Syria, with an extra £100m being given to charities to help people displaced by the conflict, in addition to its promise to accept refugees.