The UK must withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) because its interpretation by the courts encourages terrorists to come to Britain, according to a report published today.

Ministers will continue to find it almost impossible to kick out terrorist suspects or those who have served a sentence for terrorism while the UK remains in the convention.

Human rights laws should be rewritten to take account of the new age of terrorism by excluding terrorists from its provisions, the report by Migrationwatch said.

Migrationwatch says that the convention and its interpretation by the courts is acting as a “positive encouragement” to terrorists to come to the UK because it is almost impossible to deport them to foreign states with poor human rights records.

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch, said: “The ECHR was drawn up 50 years ago in entirely different circumstances. We must now pull out of it and write our own laws to protect human rights for the majority.

“We now face a terrorist threat of a completely different order from past threats.”

Migrationwatch says the UK should give six months’ notice that it will withdraw from the convention and announce that that any foreigners convicted of a terrorist offence will be deported to their home country at the end of their sentence. The report adds that the Government should also be allowed to detain suspects for long periods of time.

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