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By Adam Parsons, Europe Correspondent

The Human Rights Commissioner at the Council of Europe, which includes the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), has criticised the government’s Rwanda’s bill, saying it “raises major concerns” and has called for key clauses to be reversed.

Michael O’Flaherty, said he was “concerned” about the new law and said the British government should “refrain from removing people under the Rwanda policy”.

Mr O’Flaherty, an Irishman who has spent his career working in the field of human rights, took over the role of commissioner earlier this month.

His role is to monitor human rights across the 46 members of the Council of Europe, and to make recommendations.

Although he is impartial, and not connected to the ECHR, the court is part of the Council of Europe.

He said: “Managing asylum and migration is undoubtedly a complex endeavour for states, but it must always be done in full compliance with international standards.

“In this regard, I am concerned that the Rwanda bill enables the implementation of a policy of removing people to Rwanda without any prior assessment of their asylum claims by UK authorities in the majority of cases.

“The United Kingdom government should refrain from removing people under the Rwanda policy and reverse the bill’s effective infringement of judicial independence.”

He said there was still a danger of migrants being deported from Rwanda back to countries from which they had fled – contrary to international law – and criticised the idea that ministers could decide whether or not to adhere to rulings by the EHCR, saying they are “binding”.

He claimed that the Rwanda bill was part of a wider move, among European nations, to “externalise” asylum and migration policy, which he claimed, was “a matter of concern for the global system of protection of the rights of refugees”.