My Lords, I join my noble friend Lady Stroud and others in strongly supporting this amendment. The proposition is that asylum seekers who have waited six months for an initial decision should be allowed the right to work.
Clearly, and as has already been said, this measure can provide important safeguards. Not being held up from work assists motivation, attitude of mind and mental health, as it also preserves dignity and protects against the danger of modern slavery. Yet it might be alleged, or wrongly assumed, that such benefits to the applicant come at a high price—even at an unacceptable price—to the host country: that the workforce would thereby become top-heavy causing much national resentment and attracting too many to come here from other countries. Yet, on all these three counts, the truth is the complete opposite.
As my noble friend Lady Stroud pointed out, 125,000 people await an asylum decision. With our current labour shortages these numbers, if allowed to work, would considerably boost our economy; that is also well recognised. Far from fear and resentment, there is wide national approval, with over 70% believing that asylum seekers in the system longer than six months should have the right to work.
10 pm
Thirdly, there is the specious claim that the right to work after six months might lead to an unmanageable intake of asylum seekers in the first place. Yet, not least as stressed by the Government’s Migration Advisory Committee, these is little evidence to back up that assertion. Instead, the main reason for asylum seekers coming here is the need to escape from intolerable circumstances in their own countries, as we are now witnessing through the thousands of Ukrainians fleeing from war. For all these reasons I hope that my noble friend the Minister will be able to accept this amendment.