Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

Clause 51 brings in a duty regarding the welfare of children in the carrying out of immigration and nationality functions. We certainly welcome this duty to act in regard to the welfare of children. We feel that it would have been even better if the new Bill incorporated the key sections of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, we certainly welcome the recognition in this clause of the importance of including those functions. The purpose of my amendment is to see the extent of this duty. My amendment would insert the words, ""who are in the United Kingdom"," as it is not clear whether the clause covers the UKBA staff based abroad, immigration functions at juxtaposed controls, entry clearance points and escorted removals from the UK. Of course, the clause is modelled on Section 11 of the Children Act 2004, which, interestingly, is not restricted to children who are in the UK. The inclusion of this caveat might be because the Government continue to be very worried that if they make this clause any stronger and have a need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children beyond a point that they remain in the UK, it might impede UKBA staff from carrying out their immigration functions; for example, removing a child and their family from the UK at the end of the asylum process if their claim has failed and their appeal rights have been exhausted. We do not think that such a fear is founded. The Government’s own admission is that that would not be the case because during the passage of the Section 11 legislation, to which I have just referred, Ministers stated in the House, ""We have been very careful in the way in which we have worded this clause: we do not put a duty on agencies that would make them unable to fulfil their primary functions".—[Official Report, 17/6/04; col. 995.]" The exploration of exactly what the Government mean is important when it comes, for example, to the forcible removal of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children to their countries of origin. That has raised a number of issues. Although it is not always easy to obtain information on exactly what happens in such cases, they continue to cause some concern. I hope that the Minister will be quite clear on the extent of this clause and on the functions of UKBA, which it will cover. I beg to move.