Do we support international human rights protections or do we not? Are we steadfast in our adherence to the European convention on human rights, the refugee convention and other international treaties we have signed up to, or are we not? To me, it is extraordinary that those simple questions are even apparently subject to debate, but those simple questions are precisely what this appalling Bill is asking of us, including in the clauses we are debating today.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has been clear that the Bill breaches the refugee convention. The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights has written to us all today to warn it is:
“essential that Members of Parliament…prevent legislation that is incompatible with the UK’s international obligations being passed”.
Our view is that, because the Bill rides roughshod over international human rights law, it should be scrapped entirely. Short of that, the amendments in the name of my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow Central (Alison Thewliss) and colleagues try to restore at least some level of respect for international law.
This is not only an abstract issue of international law. This is about the Afghan lieutenant we read about in The Independent on Sunday yesterday, who flew 30 combat missions against the Taliban and was praised by his coalition supervisor as being a “patriot to his nation”. Now he is in a hotel and threatened with removal to Rwanda. It is about LGBT people fleeing outrageous criminal laws in Uganda, whose Parliament last week voted for further draconian legislation, imposing endless imprisonment and even death sentences on LGBT people, as well as on those who do not report them to the police or even rent a room to them. This is all about trafficking victims, victims of torture and many more vulnerable people. The question is: are we committed to meeting our international obligations to those people? For me and my SNP colleagues, the answer must clearly be yes, but the Bill says no.
We therefore absolutely oppose clause 49 and the Government’s attempt to undermine the role of the Court of Human Rights. Clause 49 empowers the Home Secretary to ignore, and even to compel our courts to ignore, interim measures from the Court. It is said to be
a placeholder clause, but here we are debating it with only a select bunch of Conservative Back Benchers apparently any the wiser as to what the Government’s intentions are with respect to it. The clause, as drafted, is totally unacceptable, but so, too, is the way the Government are treating Parliament. As the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights states in his letter to us:
“interim measures issued by the European Court of Human Rights, and their binding nature, are integral to ensuring that member states fully and effectively fulfil their human rights obligations”.
We therefore believe the clause should be taken out, or that either our amendment 119 or amendment 122, tabled by my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West (Joanna Cherry), should be supported to ensure that power is used consistently with the convention. The Prime Minister should stop dancing to the tune of the anti-ECHR minority. He should have the guts to put international human rights before internal party management.
I turn next to safe legal routes, which many amendments and new clauses understandably address. The lack of them and, in the case of the Afghan citizens’ resettlement scheme, their poor and slow implementation, is clearly a contributor to irregular arrivals. Expanding them would help to tackle that issue, as the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) eloquently set out. Clause 51, as it stands, is completely inadequate. It provides for a limit not to be exceeded, rather than providing a target to aim for, and it allows the Home Secretary, instead of Parliament, to set the definition of “safe legal route”. Our amendment 179 and related amendments replace the cap with a target, and a longer-term target too, and seek to improve Parliament’s role in setting that goal and holding the Home Secretary to account for her efforts to meet it. We support other new clauses and amendments that seek to achieve similar aims. We support the various new clauses that highlight particular safe legal routes, such as the humanitarian travel permit, safe passage visa schemes, refugee family reunion and Dublin-style safe legal routes for children in the EU. The key point is, as has been said, that these routes should be a priority and an urgent part of the overall response, not an afterthought to be looked at a little way down the line.
On the remaining clauses relating to legal proceedings, frankly, most of the provisions in the Bill essentially dehumanise people who seek protection here, so that no matter what horrors they have endured, their individual circumstances are to be ignored and their ability to access rights and protections set out in international treaties is to be decimated. Instead, they are to be detained, locked up and either removed or left in permanent limbo. The clauses on legal proceedings buttress that regime by seeking to snuff out the ability of anyone to get to a courtroom to challenge what is going on before their removal takes place.
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What is most fundamental about this regime is what you cannot use as grounds for a suspensive challenge prior to removal. The Afghan who fought alongside our pilots against the Taliban cannot challenge his removal to Rwanda on the grounds that he is a refugee, and the trafficking victim cannot prevent his or her lengthy detention and removal on the basis of being a victim of trafficking.
Our amendment 76 makes the fundamental point that if a person makes a claim to be a refugee or makes a human rights claim, or if there are grounds to think they may be a victim of modern slavery or trafficking, that should be considered before any action is taken to remove. That is basically how things used to be, that is basically how things have been until now, that is how it should be, and that is generally what is required to live up to our obligations under international law. We also believe it is a requirement of simple common humanity.
As the Bill stands, not only is none of that possible, but the limited ability to challenge on grounds that serious and irreversible harm is risked is made incredibly difficult by the way the clauses are drafted. It is made more difficult because of ludicrously restricted grounds for challenge and appeal, and high evidential burdens. It happens because of red tape and deadlines that will simply be impossible to comply with. The challenges are provided by more ouster clauses and restricted appeal rights. That happens because the Bill gives the Secretary of State significant and unwarranted control over those processes. In short, access to justice and the rule of law are being pulverised. Our various other amendments are designed to pick away at that and restore appeal rights.
Why have the Government decided on
“real risk of serious and irreversible harm”
as the test for a suspensive claim? Yes, I acknowledge that that is the backstop test for interim measures under the European convention on human rights, but it is a high and unusually difficult test, and it risks the removal of people in circumstances where significant harm will occur to them. Why, in particular, is the Secretary of State left to define the concept, rather than Parliament, including the ability to lower the standard if she is unhappy with how courts interpret it?
We are particularly concerned with clause 40(5) and the requirements for making valid suspensive claims. I would be grateful if the Minister could clarify the implications of a claim not meeting those requirements. Often, if an application is not in a prescribed form, it means the Home Secretary simply does not look at the claim at all. That means there will not even be a refusal that can be appealed. I ask the Minister: is that the case in these circumstances?
Most concerningly, listed alongside the necessity to be in the “prescribed form”, is a requirement for the application to contain “compelling evidence”. Again, I ask the Minister: does that mean that if the Home Secretary simply decides there is no compelling evidence, it is as if no application has been made at all and, therefore, there is no right of appeal? If that is the case, that means the Secretary of State can simply close down any possibility of a challenge by deciding no application has been made. I would genuinely appreciate clarity from the Minister on that point.