My Lords, I am glad to follow the noble Lord and his very interesting contribution. In many respects, it was a very persuasive argument and, I believe, a very persuasive preparatory argument for Amendment 131 in my name, supported by my noble friend Lord Paddick and the noble Lord, Lord Carlile. It seeks to at least present a mechanism by which we would be able to realise the case that the noble Lord has made. On Amendment 128C, I have a slight concern with the way in which the Government may get around it, which I will address in a moment. At the outset I reiterate an interest that I have, in that I am currently deeply involved in working with civilian groups within Sudan and have supported an anti-trafficking project in the Horn of Africa through to the Gulf.
I am very happy to support Amendment 128B and the way in which the right reverend Prelate opened this debate so clearly today, making the case, which I believe is unanswerable, that the current schemes should not be included within any hard cap mechanism. In debates, many of my noble friends and colleagues around the House have raised the difficulties in getting some of these schemes up and running and, as the right reverend Prelate indicated, the limited scope of some of them. It would have been a tragic loss for many people if we had wrapped up these schemes in a hard cap, because Clause 58, which I argue should not be in the Bill, leaves enormous discretion for the Government. As the Refugee Council indicated, the Government could establish a cap of, say, 10,000 people and would comply with it if just 10 entered. Even a cap, an upper limit, is not a commitment to provide support and refuge for the individuals within that overall cap number.
Amendment 131 is very much designed to be a brake against smuggling and trafficking. It is meant to remove incentives for crime and is, in addition, an effective means of allowing access to apply for the very kind of support that has been called for so far in the debate. On that basis, I also commend my noble friend Lady Hamwee, who made arguments for this in debates on the Nationality and Borders Bill last year. The Government accept the case for a non country-specific emergency scheme for people who qualify for asylum in the UK. However, not only have they accepted the case but they have also, I believe, sought to misrepresent the situation and suggest that it is available already in many instances.
My first question for the Minister is that if it is the Government’s position that they will consider new routes once the boats have stopped, at what level of crossings over the channel will the Government consider that the boats have stopped? Is it in their entirety or do the Government have an indicative level under which they would then trigger the mechanism they have indicated, which is to consider new safe and legal routes? Given that, as my noble friend Lord Scriven has pointed out on many occasions, this is an issue not simply about cross-channel crossings but about road access, rail access and misuse of papers, what is the level of this being stopped before which the Government will indicate new safe and legal routes?
I indicated earlier that the Government seek to misrepresent the situation. On the morning of 26 April, the Home Secretary said to Sky News:
“If you are someone who is fleeing Sudan for humanitarian reasons, there are various mechanisms you can use. The UNHCR is present in the region and they are the right mechanism by which people should apply if they do want to seek asylum in the United Kingdom”.
On the same day, in the House of Commons, the Minister, Robert Jenrick, said:
“The best advice clearly would be for individuals to present to the UNHCR. The UK, like many countries, works closely with the UNHCR and we already operate safe and legal routes in partnership with it. That safe and legal route is available today”.—[Official Report, Commons, 26/4/23; col. 774.]
Clearly, that was awful advice because, on the same day, the UNHCR issued a statement:
“UNHCR is aware of recent public statements suggesting that refugees wishing to apply for asylum in the United Kingdom should do so via the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees’ respective offices in their home region. UNHCR wishes to clarify that there is no mechanism through which refugees can approach UNHCR with the intention of seeking asylum in the UK”.
The Government seemed to accept that because, in the evening, Foreign Office Minister Andrew Mitchell was on Sky News, and he was asked for clarification on what safe and legal routes a Sudanese person could use to claim asylum in the UK. He said:
“Well, at the moment those safe and legal routes don’t exist”.
So after what was said in the Commons and on Sky News in the morning, after clarification in the afternoon it was clear by the evening that safe and legal routes do not exist. This is the political environment in which we are having to seek clarity from the Minister today with regard to the Government’s position.
11.45 am
It is not just a Sudan phenomenon. We have addressed in this House on numerous occasions the dreadful persecution of young Iranian women. On 23 February I asked the noble Lord, Lord Ahmad, the Foreign Office Minister:
“Can the Minister state, in clear terms, what the safe route is for Iranian women to seek asylum in the UK? According to the Government, Iranians were the second highest nationality of those who sought asylum in 2021, with 9,652. What signal are we sending if we have not put in place safe routes for asylum for those who seek refuge in the UK?”
The noble Lord, Lord Ahmad replied to me:
“The noble Lord, Lord Purvis, raised asylum seekers and pathways; I myself have been following this and asked that question. I assure noble Lords that I will follow this up directly with colleagues at the Home Office. Although it is a matter for them, I recognise that Iranians are eligible for the resettlement scheme, for example, which is a global scheme that started in March 2021. The need for safe routes for asylum is crucial; we need to remain focused on that”.—[Official Report, 23/2/23; cols. GC 520-21, 525.]
We have the Home Office Minister with us here today, so I am fairly certain he will be able to offer clarity with regard to Iran.
The resettlement scheme that the noble Lord, Lord Ahmad, referred to is administered through UNHCR, which has been referred to. But the Independent Commission for Aid Impact, in its report from March this year, said that
“UNHCR has been asked by the UK government to shift its attention to focus on identifying Afghan refugees for resettlement under ACRS Pathway 2 only … As a result, the UKRS has almost completely ceased processing vulnerable refugees for resettlement to the UK, in effect closing a rare safe and legal route to seek protection in the UK for refugees who do not fall under a nationality-based scheme”.
Why am I quoting from ICAI, a development inspectorate? It is because in such generosity of spirit, this Government, uniquely among developed economies and for the first time ever in our history, are scoring all support to refugees in the UK for the first year as overseas development assistance. This means it is being cut from the very places that the Government say are root cause countries in the first place. Not only that, but in a move quite hard to be palatable, the £350 thank you payments to host families are scored 100% against overseas development assistance, being cut from famine relief in the Horn of Africa and elsewhere. There is neither any sense to this nor any consistency of application.
The Government believe a need exists, as evidenced by them finding themselves in a tricky position when asked about Sudan and Iran, misrepresenting the reality. Amendment 131 tries to offer a global mechanism by which those who have serious and compelling reasons why their claim could be considered in the UK can apply. The extent of the risk that they will suffer persecution or serious harm is, therefore, a relatively high bar but justifiably so. As Amendment 131 indicates, where “P” is the applicant,
“the strength of P’s family and other ties to the United Kingdom … P’s mental and physical health and any particular vulnerabilities that P has; and … any other matter that the decision-maker thinks relevant”
must be demonstrated. We use “persecution” with the same meaning as in the UN refugee convention, and “serious harm” would be contrary to Article 2, right to life, or Article 3, prohibition of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment, under the European Convention on Human Rights.
This amendment does not mean that everyone who is at risk around the world would be able to apply, but it means there would be a targeted response that could be protected against government whim and would be clearly understood. All those factors would mean that it would be an effective way of breaking the smuggling and trafficking routes that are all too prevalent. If the Government think some of the drafting can be improved, we will happily sit down with Ministers to discuss it. As the noble Lord, Lord Kirkhope, said, hopefully on at least some element of the Bill, the Government will work with others in this House to ensure that there are practical mechanisms that do not need to wait on a political mechanism of when boats have been stopped, but we can act now to put in place workable, practical and meaningful responses to a real problem to assist individuals.