Can I say to the Government that I am disappointed that they are resisting all of the amendments from the Lords? Clearly, immigration legislation is needed, and new immigration rules are needed in time for January when the transition ends, but the purpose of Lords amendments is to try to improve those rules and the legislation.
I would say to the hon. Member for Derbyshire Dales (Miss Dines) that that is what this debate is all about—for the UK to decide what principles it wants to embed in the immigration system for the future, and many of the Lords amendments are about establishing principles around compassion and drawing on the history the UK has long had of supporting refugees and also supporting the vulnerable.
It is disappointing that the Government are not responding to the mild request to have a social care impact assessment. It is only a limited request, but it is the right response to the Migration Advisory Committee’s recommendation that something needs to be done. It recommended a pay increase, which I would strongly like to see. In the absence of that, it said that social care should be added to the shortage occupation list to make sure that that vital service is not overstretched as we go through another difficult winter. The Government have provided no response to that at all.
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Lords amendment 3 supports some of the most vulnerable EU citizens: children in our care system. Many of them may not even know that they are not British, but nobody has put in an application for them on their behalf. The Minister said that there are fewer than 4,000 children and 40% have applied. That means that 60% have not applied. We are talking about more than 2,000 children, which is not that many from the point of view of the Government’s system, but for every single one of those children, it could have a huge impact on their lives for many years to come if they find that, in fact, they do not have the entitlements in place.
The Minister said, “That’s okay, it’ll be fine. The Home Office will sort it in future.” Unfortunately, the legacy of the Windrush scandal proves that the Home Office has not historically been good at resolving such things many years in the future when policies have moved on and institutional memory has been lost. That is why I support the powerful words of my right hon. Friend the Member for East Ham (Stephen Timms)
on why we should have a physical document—to learn the lessons from the Windrush scandal and what went wrong there.
I particularly urge the Government to look again at Lords amendment 4, which was put forward by Lord Alf Dubs, who came here as a child refugee as part of the Kindertransport when the UK rightly did its bit to support children fleeing persecution. The children and teenagers whom we are talking about are those who have fled conflict or persecution, and who have family here who could look after them. Some are in camps in Greece and some are sleeping on the streets in France, but they should be in a safe home with relatives who can care for them.
Safe Passage, which the Government have rightly worked with to support child refugees in the past, has warned that 95% of the children and young people that it has supported through the Dublin route to rejoin family members would be unlikely to qualify under the system that the Government are now proposing to replace the Dublin arrangements. The immigration rules that the Minister wants to fall back on prevent a child or teenager joining an aunt, older brother or someone who could look after them when they have already been separated from their parents—from those whom they love. It is not just inhumane to deny that small number of children the chance to rejoin a family who can look after them; it is also counterproductive and dangerous, because it puts them at the mercy of being exploited by trafficking gangs and criminal gangs that can otherwise suck them into exploitation.
Safe Passage has already said that some of the young people it has been working with in Europe, to urge them to go to the legal system to apply for asylum in those countries and then, where necessary, apply to rejoin family in the UK, are instead starting to panic because they think the system is being changed and they are starting to abscond. That means that they are starting to be sucked into the arms of those smuggler gangs. We all know that those boats coming across the channel are really dangerous. We should be taking action to prevent those lives being put at risk. That includes making sure that where there are young people who have family to care for them, they can do so legally.
Finally, I support the words of the right hon. Members for Staffordshire Moorlands (Karen Bradley) and for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith), who talked about the importance of providing support for victims of trafficking and modern slavery. The Modern Slavery Act 2015 put forward by the former Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May), when she was Home Secretary was immensely important, but it is not working in practice if some victims of trafficking and modern slavery simply do not get the support that they need. It is possible to have a new immigration system that provides support for the most vulnerable and those who are victims of slavery. The Government should do that.