Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

My Lords, noble Lords all round the House are disappointed that this is not a simplification Bill. That disappointment is certainly felt keenly on these Benches and was eloquently expressed by my noble friend Lord Avebury and the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham. The difficulties that will arise from the lack of a simplification Bill will affect UK citizens, potential citizens and staff working in this area. Although there have been some 11 immigration Bills since this Government came to power, none of them has succeeded in properly disentangling the issues of asylum seekers from those of economic migrants. Even when opening the debate, the Minister still seemed to me to confuse the issue by talking about those who wanted to come here, whereas there are two categories: those who want to come here and those who need to do so. The definition provided by my noble friend Lord Thomas of Gresford is well worth studying as it addresses that very issue. The result of this failure is that with each Bill asylum seekers are disproportionately targeted by new measures. That is happening again in this Bill, which fails to recognise their issues. The noble Lord, Lord Morris of Handsworth, rightly said that too much of this legislation is driven by a fear of public opinion rather than by a consideration of what will actually work. The Government have failed to address the issue of the estimated 430,000—that is the National Audit Office’s figure; it could well be higher—undocumented people residing in the UK, some of whom work. The fundamental failure to confront this issue has led to a very difficult situation for everybody. Local authority services are under pressure but they get no additional funding as the ““illegals”” do not appear on local authority records. The people themselves live in the shadows, or, as the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Lincoln said, in no man’s land. His speech showed us why we should not accept that as being in any way reasonable. It is shocking that this situation has continued for so long. These people’s lives in no man’s land or in the shadows may not be so bad until things start to go wrong and illness, death, or falling victim to crime leaves them in a difficult situation. The failure to address this very large group makes them vulnerable. It means that the taxes they would pay are lost to the country and it encourages a black economy. It also ignores the contribution that many of them make to many aspects of UK life. The noble Lord, Lord Griffiths of Burry Port, gave us some graphic illustrations of that, for which I am grateful. The Liberal Democrats do not call for the unconditional amnesty that some leading Conservatives, such as Boris Johnson, are suggesting. We believe that creating a path to citizenship is the way to deal with this situation. We say to the Government that it is pointless to rearrange border staff and to talk of earned citizenship for a few while leaving this massive number unaddressed. Noble Lords spoke movingly about asylum seekers. The Bill does not take the opportunity to clear up long-standing problems that the immigration process poses for them. Noble Lords mentioned the destitution suffered by those asylum seekers who receive no support. The noble Lord, Lord Joffe, the noble Earl, Lord Sandwich, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Stern and Lady Quin, concentrated on this section of the population, who deserve better from this country. We are very disappointed that the Bill does nothing to address those issues. The Minister should bear in mind that the failure to address these issues is particularly dangerous at a time of economic downturn. I commend the unions—the noble Lord, Lord Lea of Crondall, spoke about them—which have acted responsibly. During the Lindsey strike, Unite quickly sent the BNP packing when it turned up to try to capitalise on a very unfortunate situation, and in its briefing UNISON said: "““We and our members know and value the significant contribution that migrant workers … make to the UK’s public services. However, we have strong concerns that the measures proposed in this Bill … will make the lives of these migrants even harder””." I think that the unions have a very realistic view of the situation. In introducing the Bill, the Minister talked about the combined border force and what it will do. My noble friend Lord Wallace of Saltaire commended the work with FRONTEX that underpins so much of what is practical. I shall not chide the noble Lord, Lord West, for his light-hearted comment about uniforms, but will say that we will examine very carefully whether the powers being created by these proposals are reasonable. After all, the powers will be given to a new force that will be in many ways greater than the police but is under political control. Groups such as NO2ID feel that those powers are excessive. They include arrest, search, seizure, fingerprinting and DNA swabbing. We in this House should not lightly give powers to a new, unaccountable group of people without questioning them very closely. I turn now to Part 2. I was very interested in the speech of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Goldsmith, about the piecemeal nature of the approach to citizenship. I am very sorry that my noble friend Lady Falkner of Margravine cannot be with us tonight because of a family bereavement—