The UK is a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, which provides at article 33(1): “No Contracting State shall expel or return (‘refouler’) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.”

Section 2 of the Asylum and Immigration Appeals Act 1993 provides that nothing in the immigration rules shall lay down any practice that would be contrary to the UK's obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention.1

However, Article 33(2) of the 1951 Refugee Convention permits an exception to the principle of non-refoulement: “The benefit of [Article 33(1)] may not, however, be claimed by a refugee whom there are reasonable grounds for regarding as a danger to the security of the country in which he is, or who, having been convicted by a final judgement of a particularly serious crime, constitutes a danger to the community of that country.”

Nevertheless, the UK is a signatory to other conventions, covenants and treaties which, individually, or taken together, provide for an absolute bar on refoulement.

The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), of which the UK is a State Party, provides that “[n]o one shall be deprived of his life intentionally save in the execution of a sentence of a court following his conviction of a crime for which this penalty is provided by law” (at Article 2) and that “[n]o one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” (at Article 3).2

The European Court of Human Rights has confirmed in the case of MSS v Belgium and Greece (2011) 53 EHRR 2 that Article 3 of the ECHR requires States Parties to refrain from removing asylum seekers from their territories to countries where they face a risk of refoulement, either directly, or via another country or countries, to their country of origin.3

Domestically, section 6(1) of the Human Rights Act 1998 makes it unlawful for any public authority to act in a way that is incompatible with ECHR rights.4

The UK is also a signatory to the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of 1984 (“UNCAT”), which provides at Article 3(1): “No State Party shall expel, return (‘refouler’) or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.”5

Furthermore, the UK is a State Party to the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966 (“ICCPR”), which provides that “[n]o one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life (at Article 6) and that “[n]o one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” (at Article 7).6 The UN Human Rights Committee confirms that this extends an obligation on States Parties “not to extradite, deport, expel or otherwise remove a person from their territory, where there are substantial grounds for believing that there is a real risk of irreparable harm, such as that contemplated by articles 6 and 7 of the Covenant, either in the country to which removal is to be effected or in any country to which the person may subsequently be removed.”7

• 1Asylum and Immigration Appeals Act 1993, Section 2. Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1993/23/section/2.
• 2European Convention on Human Rights. Available at: https://www.echr.coe.int/documents/d/echr/convention_ENG.
• 3Case of MSS v Belgium and Greece (2011) 53 EHRR 2, European Court of Human Rights. Available at: https://www.refworld.org/jurisprudence/caselaw/echr/2011/77079.
• 4Human Rights Act 1998, Section 6: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/42/section/6.
• 5United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Available at: https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-against-torture-and-other-cruel-inhuman-or-degrading.  
• 6United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966. Available at: https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/international-covenant-civil-and-political-rights.
• 7UN Human Rights Committee, General comment no. 31 [80], The nature of the general legal obligation imposed on States Parties to the Covenant, May 2004, Paragraph 12. Available at: https://www.refworld.org/legal/general/hrc/2004/52451.