My Lords, Clause 15 allows the Secretary of State to declare an asylum claim inadmissible if the person has a connection with a “safe third
state”. Because it is a declaration of inadmissibility, there is no appeal other than judicial review, and there is nothing to stop the Home Secretary from removing the person to another third state with which they have no connection in the meantime, as the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, has explained. A connection to a safe third state includes where a claim for asylum in that country has been refused, a country where they could have claimed asylum but failed to do so, or where the Home Secretary thinks that it would have been reasonable to expect them to have claimed asylum in another country.
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By that definition, any refugee who has travelled through a so-called safe third state could be considered to have a connection with that country and therefore risks having their claim for asylum in the UK being ruled inadmissible, and therefore not even being considered by the Home Office. My understanding is that currently inadmissibility creates a six-month delay in processing an application while the Home Office tries to deport the person, and that if the Bill is passed that delay will become indefinite.
The likelihood of the UK Government being able to send back an asylum seeker to any third country that the Government have no agreement with appears unlikely, as the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, has said. The other place may be bored with too many take-out amendments. As an alternative, therefore, Amendment 32, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, to which I have added my name, would ensure that the powers in this clause would be brought into force only once the Government have agreed a formal returns agreement with the third country that the Government claim the asylum seeker has a connection with and to which they intend to send them. Amendment 32 is not as good as taking out the clause but it is better than no change at all, so we will support this amendment in the event of a Division.