Asylum (First List of Safe Countries) (Amendment) Order 2006

rose to move, That the draft order laid before the House on 16 November be approved. 2nd Report from the Statutory Instruments Committee. The noble Lord said: My Lords, I shall speak also to the Accession (Immigration and Worker Authorisation) Regulations 2006. The safe countries order adds Bulgaria and Romania to the first list of safe third countries atPart 2 of Schedule 3 to the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Act 2004. This provision is concerned with situations in which an asylum seeker may be removed to a safe third country without substantive consideration of his asylum claim—a third country being one of which he is not a national or citizen. So this instrument is not about nationals from Bulgaria or Romania seeking asylum in the UK. Countries in the first list of safe countries in Part 2 of Schedule 3 to the 2004 Act are places which are to be treated as safe when determining whether a third country national who has made an asylum or human rights claim in the United Kingdom may be removed to one of them. The first-list countries are presumed to be places from which an asylum seeker will not be refouled in breach of the refugee convention or the European Convention on Human Rights. Provided that the Secretary of State is able to certify, therefore, that the applicant is not a national or citizen of the state listed, she or he may be removed to it and no right of appeal lies against that decision. Applicants may resist their removal on other human rights grounds in the usual way, although provision is made for such claims to be certified as clearly unfounded unless we are satisfied that they are not. If a claim is certified then any appeal may be made only outside the United Kingdom. A decision that a claim is clearly unfounded will be susceptible to judicial review in the same way. If a claim is not certified as clearly unfounded, then the applicant retains his or her in-country right of appeal on those human rights grounds. The Part 2 list includes all member states of the European Union and Iceland and Norway, all of which are countries bound by the arrangements for determining responsibility for examining an asylum claim set down in Regulation 343, also known as the Dublin II regulation. All EU member states are bound by other European legislation forming part of the common European asylum system. Bulgaria and Romania will be similarly bound from the date of their accession. Therefore, we propose that this order shall come into force on 1 January 2007. Dublin II, supported by evidence from the Eurodac database of fingerprints, is the cornerstone of the common European asylum system—the European asylum acquis. Combined with other measures implemented as part of the common asylum policy, it seeks to prevent asylum shopping across the European Union. Dublin II and Eurodac require a spirit of mutual trust and confidence at national level and an appreciation of the demands of working in an area of free movement by recording and processing asylum applications in accordance with the asylum acquis, controlling the external border for the benefit of all and acknowledging the consequences of illegal entry and illegal presence. I turn to the Accession (Immigration and Worker Authorisation) Regulations 2006. I am very pleased to have the opportunity to present the Government’s proposals on the accession regulations to your Lordships' House. The accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the EU is an object of real and legitimate public interest and it is right that this House should have the opportunity to debate these proposals. Managed migration is good for our economy and is in the interests of the UK. It was this principle which informed our approach to the accession of the new member states two years ago. Accession migration has been a success and migrants from those countries are filling gaps in our labour market and helping to deliver public services. Managed migration does not raise only economic issues. We must look not only to the economic impacts of our approach, but also to the social effect. There are public services on which accession state migration has not impacted, such as the National Health Service. Indeed, migrants from those countries are often working in our public services. However, there have also been some transitional impacts, with quite large numbers of people arriving in a short period of time, especially in areas where migration has not been a feature of life until now, which can have an impact on the community, private housing and local services such as schools. That is why we will take a gradual approach to this round of accession. We want to make sure that we understand the pressures which migration from the accession countries has created and will create. Our approach will take into account the needs of the labour market, the impact of EU expansion and the positions adopted by our fellow member states. That is why we propose placing restrictions on Bulgarian and Romanian nationals who seek to work. Most skilled workers will need to obtain a worker authorisation document if they wish to work here. Many people in this situation will apply under the equivalent of the work permit scheme. This means that their prospective employer will need to show that there are no suitable workers from the UK or from the rest of the European economic area. Accession nationals will also be able to obtain this document if they wish to apply under other categories of the immigration rules, such as those applying to ministers of religion and au pairs. Highly skilled migrants will not need to obtain a work authorisation document; they can apply under provisions equivalent to schemes such as the highly skilled migrant programme. Some Bulgarian and Romanian nationals will be able to come to the UK to do low-skilled work, but they will be restricted to jobs in the agricultural and food-processing sectors, although we will listen to representations from other parts of the economy which feel that they need low-skilled workers. There will be a quota on these schemes of 19,750. We will also be restricting these schemes to Bulgarian and Romanian nationals upon accession, which is in line with the principles of Community preference. Students will still be able to come to the UK as now and, if they do not wish to work, they will not need to apply for any documentation. If they do wishto work—for up to 20 hours a week—they will need to apply for a registration certificate. We cannot place restrictions on the self-employed. We will take measures to make sure that people who are really working do not pose as self-employed persons. We are proposing new powers to help us to enforce the system. It will be an offence for an employer to employ a Bulgarian or Romanian national who needs a worker authorisation document but who does not have one, or who is undertaking work other than that specified in the document. Individual workers in this situation will also be committing an offence, for which they may face prosecution, although this will be waived if the individual pays a fixed penalty. It will also be an offence for a Bulgarian or Romanian national to seek to obtain a worker authorisation card by deception. In implementing this system, we are also catering for the needs of law-abiding employers. We will introduce an information campaign for them, backed up by a toolkit and helpline to ensure that companies are aware of the rules and of their responsibilities under the new system. We wish to work with employers to make sure that the new system benefits private enterprise and the whole economy. We are also working with the International Organisation for Migration to provide Bulgarian and Romanian nationals with information on how the rules will function. That will stress to prospective migrants the need to check their rights before they travel to the UK and the need, in most cases, not to travel to seek work. The regulations themselves are for a total period of five years. This reflects the fact that after two years we are required to notify the Commission if we intend to maintain the restrictions. We can then maintain them for a further three years. However, we are committed to reviewing these arrangements within 12 months. I believe that these regulations enable us to pursue a controlled, managed approach to migration which is in the interests of the UK economy. I beg to move. Moved, That the draft order laid before the House on 16 November be approved. 2nd Report from the Statutory Instruments Committee.—(Lord Bassam of Brighton.)