UK Borders Bill

I support my noble friend Lord Avebury’s amendment. I suggest that it is time that the Government weighed this up in the most serious way possible. Under the previous Prime Minister we saw policies seemingly driven by tabloid pressure—if the Murdoch press said this or Fox News said that, then the Government seemed to go that way. With a new Prime Minister we may get a more open approach on these matters. Let us dispel some of these media myths. People who come here—asylum seekers or not—often suffer extreme poverty. The Penrose report of 2002 said that 85 per cent of asylum seekers regularly experience hunger, 95 per cent are unable to buy clothes or shoes and 80 per cent are unable to maintain their health. It estimated that 2,100 refugee children are out of school in London alone. These people are already in a desperate situation. Some will say, ““People come here only to take advantage of our benefits system””. I spoke to a former commissioner who was well versed in European Union politics. He told me that, in his time, 363,000 people came from eastern Europe to the UK and only 16 claimed benefits. That destroys for ever the myth that people come here just to take unfair advantage of our system. If that impression is put forward by the media, some people will always go with it. The Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Act 2004 applies to people already in a desperate situation. The Minister at the time, Beverley Hughes, in evidence to the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, said: "““The proposals are not intended to make all families destitute””." I do not know whether there was a reason to say, ““all families destitute””. Perhaps it was just a slip of the tongue. She continued: "““They are intended both as a deterrent but also an incentive ... I want to … persuade as many families as possible … to go back in a dignified way, with support, on a voluntary basis””." Possibly, that was the intention. The category of ““failed asylum seeker with family”” came into being and immediately those people lost entitlement to financial or material support. This was in contravention of the Children Act 1989, the Human Rights Act 1998, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1991, the European Convention on Human Rights 1991 and the 1954 United Nations convention on the rights of refugees. The Joint Committee on Human Rights also was deeply concerned. There was total contravention of all these Acts and conventions to which we have signed up. I thought that there was a wee bit of light on 25 June 2007 when the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Scotland of Asthal, speaking on Section 9, said: "““In the form piloted, Section 9 did not significantly influence behaviour in favour of co-operating with removal, although there was some increase in the number of applications made for travel documents. This suggests that the Section 9 provision should not be seen as a universal tool to encourage departure in every case; therefore, we do not propose that it should be used on an indiscriminate basis by Border and Immigration Agency case-owners in the future””.—[Official Report, 25/6/07; col. WS 50.]" That is an admission of failure. There is a desire to keep Section 9 on the statute book just in case there is a family somewhere who can be sent from these shores in any other way. As my noble friend Lord Avebury mentioned, there was only one case in which the provision was effective. There are three trial areas—West Yorkshire, Manchester and parts of east London—but there has been only one such case. Surely with such a record of failure, this provision is not only irrelevant but clutters up our legislation. It should be wiped out of the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Act once and for all. Let us put ourselves in the shoes of these asylum seekers—and that includes little children. I have a grandson who is two years old today. These children are just like our children. They need to be loved, cared for and supported. They need to be given hope and potential. Yet we are depriving them of that. It is a blot in the copybook of our nation. We are supposed to have a record of compassion and care. That is an aberration and it destroys our image. We are ready to cause terror and harm to totally innocent people. At the time of the invasion of Iraq, some of us wore t-shirts saying, ““Not in my name””. To think that my name, and our name, is associated with causing harm to little children—it is our name, your name and my name! It is in the name of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. I have mentioned before that we gave wholehearted support to Make Poverty History. This is one thing that we can do today to make one aspect of poverty history in our country. I urge the Government, by the time this amendment is debated at a later stage, to say that they can see that this position is a blot which should be removed.