Blair takes hard line on deportation

International Herald Tribune:

By Graham Bowley International Herald Tribune

SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 2005

LONDON Prime Minister Tony Blair on Friday responded to the London bomb attacks with a raft of measures to make it easier for Britain to deport foreign extremists who support terrorism.

Saying he was responding to a changed mood in the country, Blair said he was prepared to amend existing human rights legislation if cases were blocked by British courts. "Let no one be in any doubt. The rules of the game are changing," he said at a news conference.

The new measures follow criticism that extremists had been allowed to freely live and operate in Britain and evidence that some of the July 7 bombers, who killed 56 people, were influenced by extremist preachers and views.

Under the new proposals, the authorities will vet Muslim clerics before they are allowed to enter the country to preach. They will also draw up a list of banned Web sites, bookshops and centers that incite hatred. Anyone found supporting terrorism would face possible prosecution.

The government also aims to set up a new commission to support better integration of foreign communities and could set tougher thresholds for citizenship tests, which currently require a vow of allegiance to the country and a rudimentary grasp of the English language.

Blair said that "coming to Britain is not a right. And even when people have come here, staying here carries with it a duty. That duty is to share and support the values that sustain the British way of life."

He said the proposals would have the support of Britain's Muslim community.

"Much of the insistence on strong action to weed out extremism is coming most vigorously from Muslims themselves, deeply concerned lest the activities of the fanatical fringe should contaminate the good reputation of the mainstream community," he said.

Two terror organizations, Hizb-ut-Tahir and the successor organization of Al Mujahiroun, would be banned, and Britain would seek new powers to close places of worship that encourage extremism, he said. British nationals who could not be deported would face stricter controls on their movements in Britain, including jail sentences.

Blair said the government would seek a new time limit on extradition procedures for those wanted as suspects in other countries, mentioning specifically the case of Rashid Ramda, wanted in France for the Paris transit system bombing 10 years ago.

He said the government was publishing new guidelines for deporting and excluding extremists, with the list of actionable offenses including fostering hatred, or advocating violence to further their beliefs.

The cases will very likely be tested in courts under European human rights legislation.

As a signatory to the treaty, Britain is not allowed to deport people to countries where they could face torture or death. But he pointed to the examples of France and Spain, which he said managed to successfully deport extremists without running afoul of the law.

"The circumstances of our national security have now self-evidently changed, and we believe that we can get the necessary assurances from the countries to which we will return the deportees, against their being subject to torture or ill treatment," he said.