Image source, PA media

Today we heard from Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who challenged the UN's convention for protecting refugees during a speech at a right-wing think tank in the US.

What she said

• She questioned whether the UN's 1951 Refugee Convention, which was drawn up after World War Two, was "fit for our modern age"
• Laws had morphed from helping those fleeing persecution to those fearing bias, she argued
• She said fearing discrimination for being gay or a woman should not be enough to qualify for refugee protection

How others reacted

• The UN’s refugee agency rejected her call to tighten the definition on who qualifies as a refugee, saying the convention had saved "millions of lives"
• Labour said she was trying to "distract from her failures" in getting to grips with the UK’s migrant crisis, and accused her of using gay people and women as "scapegoats"
• Tim Loughton, a Conservative member of the Home Affairs Committee, said Braverman "had a point" and "the UK cannot be the refugee camp for the entire world"

The figures

• Braverman said the UN Refugee Convention conferred refugee rights to 780 million people - we look at that number here. The UN’s refugee agency estimates the world had around 35 million refugees, external at the end of 2022
• After her comments on gay people seeking refugee status, it's worth noting that 1.5% of the 74,751 asylum claims in the UK last year cited sexual orientation as the basis for their claim

The big picture

Much of the world is signed up to the UN's Refugee Convention - so the idea she could single-handedly drive through reforms, or that it is in her remit alone, is quite unrealistic, our political correspondent Ione Wells writes.

But by starting the debate she wants to highlight a determination to take a tough approach on migration.

Our full story can be found here. We're signing off for the night, thanks for joining us.

A little earlier we said it possible that Suella Braverman had received expenses for her trip to Washington from the think tank, as Liz Truss had on a trip before her.

The Home Office has just been in touch to make clear the think tank paid none of the home secretary’s expenses.

Now you know!

Rishi Sunak's government has promised to reduce migration - as have all his predecessors since 2010.

Here's what the party has promised in their manifestos over the last 13 years:

• 2010: Their election manifesto, external promised to reduce net migration to the "tens of thousands a year"
• 2015: The same promise appeared again in their new manifesto, external
• 2017: That promise was repeated again, external
• 2019: The manifesto, external changed, instead it promised that "the overall numbers will come down" and "we will ensure that the British people are always in control" of immigration

Net migration to the UK in 2010 was 252,000, which at the time was the highest calendar-year figure on record. In 2022, it was 606,000 - a new record high.

See how net migration figures have changed in the graph below - it's the red line.

Image source, .

Brian Wheeler
Political reporter

As a serving government minister, it is highly unlikely Suella Braverman will have received a fee for her speech to the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC earlier.

But she is likely to have had her travel, accommodation and meals paid for by the think tank.

We will eventually find out when she files an entry in the Parliament's register of members' financial interests, which anyone can look through here, external.

When Liz Truss made a speech to the same organisation in 2019, as newly appointed international trade secretary, she registered payments of £8,000 in total for flights, lodgings and meals.

The event she attended took place at the exclusive private resort of Sea Island, in Georgia.

Since this post was published the Home Office has been in touch to make clear the think tank paid none of the home secretary’s expenses. Now you know!

Imogen Foulkes
Geneva correspondent

The UN refugee agency tells the BBC that the 1951 Refugee Convention remains "the cornerstone of refugee protection".

The refugee agency's Shabia Mantoo says the convention has saved "millions of lives", and pointed to the conflicts in Ukraine and Sudan to emphasise its continued importance.

She disputes the home secretary’s claim that up to 780 million people could qualify as refugees, saying there were around 35 million refugees in the world today, the majority of them fleeing to neighbouring low income countries. (We looked into that figure earlier here.)

The UN refugee agency also appeared to question Braverman’s distinction between persecution and discrimination, in particular in relation to women, or to gay people.

Mantoo denies the convention requires updating, saying "it remains as applicable and relevant as ever", but adds that international political commitment is needed.

What's the real scale of Italy's migration crisis?published at 18:00 British Summer Time 26 September 2023

18:00 BST 26 September 2023

Suella Braverman said earlier that an estimated 133,000 people came “to Italy illegally by sea in the first six months of this year”.

But the figures by Frontex, external, the EU’s border agency, don't support that claim.

It says there were an estimated 65,600 small boat arrivals to Italy in the first six months of 2023.

The total number of people who crossed the external border of the EU was 132,370, Frontex said. That's the highest total for the first half of the year since 2016 and 10% more than in 2022.

Jordan Kenny
BBC Newsbeat politics reporter

Let's hear now from Matt Beard, the executive director of All Out, a group which fights for LGBT+ rights across the world.

He says, in his experience, when people suffering hardship "seek sanctuary in the UK, they're not shopping around for asylum".

"They're not driven to leave everything they know because of some form of mild discrimination," he told BBC Newsbeat before Braverman’s full speech.

"These are people facing arrest, intimidation, violence, torture and even murder. And they need and deserve our help - no ifs, no buts."

Beard calls for a more inclusive approach to asylum: "Let’s continue the UK’s record of a positive approach to LGBT+ human rights."

In her speech a little earlier, the home secretary said it was not enough to fear discrimination for being gay or a woman in order to qualify for international refugee protection.

Watch her comments in full below in 90 seconds below:

It's worth noting that last year, 1.5% of the UK's 74,751 asylum claims cited sexual orientation as part of the basis for the claim.

We don't know whether they were the only grounds on which the applications were made - or to what extent it influenced the outcome.

That 780 million figure explainedpublished at 17:17 British Summer Time 26 September 2023

17:17 BST 26 September 2023

There were 35 million refugees, external in the world in 2022, so why did the home secretary say that the UN’s Refugee Convention of 1951 offered “notional” protection to 780 million people?

Researchers at the Centre for Policy Studies (which describes itself as a centre-right think tank) arrived at this figure by adding up all the people in the world who could face persecution on grounds mentioned in the convention.

They included, for example, LGBT+ people in the 64 countries where same-sex relations are illegal, and everyone in Afghanistan who isn’t in the Taliban.

But there are problems with this figure. Being in a group that might be persecuted isn’t the same as having a well-founded fear that you personally will be persecuted.

The Home Office issues guidance notes to help asylum case workers make their decisions. Those notes don’t say that everyone in Afghanistan, external bar the Taliban should automatically be granted asylum, for example.

Roderick Macleod
Reporting from Washington DC

Despite Braverman reflecting many US right-wing conservative sentiments on migration, and talking at a right-leaning think tank in the lawmakers' backyard, there were no big Republican Party names or politicians in the room for her speech.

The audience today was mostly press, and some internal think tank folk.

With a US government shutdown on the horizon, Congress members have a lot on their minds and schedules.

However, Braverman made sure to mention contemporary migrant talking points in the US, including New York City’s struggle with a migrant influx, and mentioning people dying trying to cross the US-Mexico border.

Yasmine Ahmed, UK director of Human Rights Watch, an influential international NGO and human rights group, tells the BBC that the home secretary's claims that case law has led to a shift in how asylum seekers are defined are “just false".

In case you're not totally fluent in legal terminology - and who would blame you - case law refers to law created by the courts through previous judgements, rather than through Acts of Parliament.

The home secretary said the threshold had been lowered over time in terms of judging who meets criteria defined in the 1951 UN Refugee Convention.

“UK officials apply the official definitions as provided by these international conventions and there’s been no morphing,” Ahmed says.

“It's the criteria that was established [after] the Second World War when Jewish people were fleeing the Holocaust.

Braverman determined to look tough on migrationpublished at 16:49 British Summer Time 26 September 2023

16:49 BST 26 September 2023

Ione Wells
Political correspondent

Suella Braverman was speaking in Washington DC, but her comments were no doubt intended for ears back home.

The home secretary took aim at what she described as "well intentioned" international legal conventions that have defined refugees.

Much of the world is signed up to the UN's Refugee Convention - so the idea she could single-handedly drive through reforms, or that it is in her remit alone, is quite unrealistic.

We know too that in 2022 only 1.5% of asylum claims used sexual orientation as part of the basis for the claim - with the top three countries of origin being places where homosexuality is illegal and punishable by life imprisonment or death.

But by starting the debate she wants to highlight a determination to take a tough approach on migration.

Image source, PA Media

Missed the speech? Don't worry, we've been through all 5,000 words - here are the main points:

• "Uncontrolled immigration, inadequate integration, and a misguided dogma of multiculturalism have proven a toxic combination for Europe over the last few decades", she said
• Multiculturalism has failed, she said and "you can see it play out on the streets of cities all over Europe. From Malmo, to Paris, Brussels, to Leicester"
• Immigration has been "too much, too quick, with too little thought given to integration and the impact on social cohesion"
• And she says uncontrolled and illegal migration is an "existential challenge for the political and cultural institutions of the West"
• She asks whether the 1951 UN Refugee Convention "is fit for our modern age or in need of reform"
• "We will not be able to sustain an asylum system if in effect, simply being gay, or a woman, and fearful of discrimination in your country of origin, is sufficient to qualify for protection"
• "We are living in a new world bound by outdated legal models," she concluded with. "It’s time we acknowledge it"

As you've seen, we're bringing you plenty of reaction and analysis to her 30-minute speech in Washington DC, so stick with us.

We've just heard from Labour, who said Suella Braverman's priority should be clearing the backlog in asylum cases - let's take a closer look at that.

In August, Home Office figures showed the number of people in the UK waiting for a decision on their asylum claims had risen to a record high.

According to the latest data, there were 175,000 people in limbo as of the end of June - 44% higher than last year.

In December 2022, Rishi Sunak set a target of clearing the so-called legacy backlog by the end of this year.

The legacy backlog refers to the asylum applications lodged before June 2022. Officials have cleared on average 2,061 of those cases a month since then.

Image source, .

Reacting to the speech, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper says Braverman has "so totally lost grip of the asylum crisis at home, that she is choosing to target and lash out at LGBT+ people to distract from her failures instead".

Cooper says LGBT people make up 2% of asylum applications in the UK (we dug through the figures a little earlier, and 1.5% of asylum claims last year included sexual orientation as part of the basis of the claim).

The Labour MP also called on the home secretary to "start getting a grip on the record asylum backlogs and broken border security".

That's all for Suella Braverman's speech - she's now in discussion with others on the stage, which we're listening across.

There was plenty in her address. We'll be looking at some of the claims made - and analysis and reaction - and bringing you any highlights from the Q&A.

“Deterring illegal migration must be an aim,” asserts Braverman, as she brings her speech to a close.

She stresses that the “only route” to resettlement should be through legal and safe means, and that the definition for who qualifies for asylum must be changed.

International co-operation is necessary to combat the challenge of illegal migration, she says, but countries in the meantime must act while any negotiations play out.

She concludes by saying that the international community must recognise that “we are living in a new world bound by outdated legal models.”

Under Braverman, the Home Office has been trying to implement a scheme that would see some asylum seekers who arrive in the UK sent to Rwanda to claim asylum there instead.

They may be granted refugee status in Rwanda - and if not, they can apply to settle there on other grounds, or seek asylum in another "safe third country", according to the plans.

The government says it would deter people arriving in the UK through "illegal, dangerous or unnecessary methods", such as on small boats which cross the English Channel.

Image source, PA Media

More than 45,700 people used this route to come to the UK in 2022, the highest figure since records began.

No asylum seeker has actually been sent to Rwanda so far. The first flight was scheduled to depart in June 2022, but was cancelled after legal challenges. The government says it is planning to appeal.

Image source, .

Image source, PA Media

There have been no new policy announcements in this speech but Braverman is now outlining what the UK government is doing.

She says it has chosen to go down a route of “unilateral or bilateral solutions and policies of deterrence” to constrict the numbers of people seeking asylum.

She cites co-operation with authorities in Albania and France on the small boats issue, and mentions the Illegal Migration Act.

This legislation will set out that: “Anyone who enters the UK illegally will be deemed inadmissible to our asylum system, and following assessment, will be detained, and swiftly removed - to their home country if that’s safe, or to a safe third country if not,” she says.

This is the Rwanda plan that was deemed unlawful by the High Court in July this year. Braverman says she is “confident” that the Supreme Court will deliver a verdict in the government’s favour when it lodges its promised appeal.

Braverman criticises European human rights law as well.

She says that the global asylum framework is “incentivising millions of people to try their luck” to make but something that “the West cannot fulfil.”

Braverman asks: “Why has the international community, so far, collectively failed to explore any serious reform?”

She argues that the first reason is that it is very hard to renegotiate the instruments.

“The second is much more cynical. The fear of being branded a racist or illiberal."