UK gets tough on foreign criminals staying in country under Human Rights Act

London, June 20 (ANI): British lawmakers have passed a landmark vote ordering judges to stop granting foreign criminals 'human rights' to stay in the country. he motion was passed after the Commons was informed about the scale at which overseas convicts abuse the Human Rights Act, Daily Mail reports.

According to Home Office figures, 1,888 overseas offenders used their human rights to stay in the country by lodging appeals under the legislation last year.f these, 409 were allowed to stay in the country, 185 of them were allowed because they had a right to a 'family life' here under Article 8 of the Act.

The rules, which will be implemented within weeks, say anyone from outside the European Economic Area who is jailed for at least four years should 'almost always' face deportation.

The motion, tabled by Home Secretary Theresa May, sets down guidelines for Britain's own human rights judges, who MPs accuse of 'gold-plating' the Act and the European.

May told MPs: "For too long the rights of foreign criminals have been placed above the rights of the British public. We are putting that right".

"We are making clear the British public's right to protection from crime trumps a foreign criminal's weak claim to family life. We are allowing the views of Parliament to be heard on this issue loud and clear," May said.

The guidelines mean any foreign convict jailed for more than four years should be booted out when their sentence is complete, regardless of their right to a 'family life'. (ANI)