Amendments 35 and 37 would remove the subsections of Clause 28 and Schedule 3 which allow for offshoring. That is, as we know, the
power to export offshore any person in the UK who is seeking asylum without first considering their claim. Let us just repeat: we are talking here about asylum, not general immigration policy.
Clause 28 amends the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, which states that a person seeking asylum cannot be removed from the UK while their asylum claim is being processed. The Bill withdraws that right by allowing the transfer of any asylum seeker to any country listed by the Government. The Government have been somewhat reticent in telling us about the progress of any negotiations they are having with any other countries on this score. I think that is where we hear the term about the Government not wishing to give a running commentary; in other words, “We’re going to keep you in Parliament in the dark about what is going on”.
The Bill is silent on what, if any, legal obligations the UK would consider itself to have towards asylum seekers once their asylum claims have been dealt with. This issue was raised again by my noble friend Lady Lister of Burtersett and others. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has commented that the provisions of the Bill allow the Government to externalise their obligations towards refugees and asylum seekers to other countries with only minimal human rights safeguards, an issue to which my noble friend Lord Cashman referred. The only thing the Government have said is that the model the Home Office intends to proceed with is
“one where individuals would be processed as part of the asylum system of the country that we had an agreement with, rather than people being offshore and processed as part of our asylum system.”
It is not just offshoring—it is also treating and dealing with people under another country’s asylum system rather than ours.
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The UNHCR has been highly critical of efforts to offshore asylum processing, noting how
“offshoring of asylum processing often results in the forced transfer of refugees to other countries with inadequate State asylum systems, treatment standards and resources. It can lead to”
indefinite warehousing of asylum seekers
“in isolated places where they are ‘out of sight and out of mind’, exposing them to serious harm. It can also de-humanise asylum-seekers.”
I have a sneaking suspicion that that reference to “out of sight and out of mind” may well be a big attraction for the Government. There would be no pictures in the papers or on TV, apart from the ones showing these asylum seekers being bundled out of this country.
Clearly this policy is intended, in the Government’s view, to act as a deterrent. Such measures assume that people have a choice in the decisions they make. In reality, people forced to flee their country because of violence and persecution have no such choice. Consequently, deterrent measures will not stop them making the journey to find safety.
Can the Government say what their evidence is to substantiate the claim in the Explanatory Notes that the policy will
“deter irregular migration and clandestine entry to the UK”?
As I say, we are talking here about refugees and asylum seekers. Where is the evidence to substantiate that claim in the Explanatory Notes?
In the Commons, the Minister said
“Schedule 3 is designed to be part of a whole system deterrent effect to prevent illegal migration. Access to the UK’s asylum system should be based on need, and not driven by the actions of criminal enterprise”.—[Official Report, Commons, Nationality and Borders Bill Committee, 26/10/21; col. 388.]
Yet since no assessment would be made of need before a person could be moved to a third country, need cannot enter into it as far as the Government are concerned. Although the Minister in the Commons mentioned “criminal enterprise”, this clause is not targeted at criminals. It is targeted at people who are desperately seeking refuge and have legitimate reasons to be granted it. It is not targeted at those involved in the kind of criminal enterprise to which we all object most strongly and wish to see stamped out.
The proposal to offshore asylum claims is inconsistent with the global humanitarian and co-operative principles on which refugee protection is based. Frankly, if every country adopted the Government’s proposed approach, where would that leave the provisions and spirit of the refugee convention? I do not agree with the noble Lord, Lord Horam, that we should take the Government on trust and accept that we are not going to be told the details of how it would work.
I fully sympathise with what the noble Baroness, Lady Stroud, said in reiterating that a number of questions had been asked in Committee and we have not had a response. Quite honestly, if the Government are not prepared to tell us what they intend to do and why, and answer legitimate questions raised by Parliament, which surely has a right to know the answer, then I sincerely hope that Amendments 35 and 37 get carried if they are put to a vote. I have tabled amendments about leaving out Clause 28, but we would be prepared to support the amendments spoken to by the noble Baroness, since they take out the worst parts of Clause 28.