My hon. Friend is absolutely right. When I was Home Secretary, the case was brought to me of a 42-year-old who was masquerading as a child, and that became a national story. Through that, we looked at the age assessment measures and worked with scientists, and we looked at EU countries and what they were doing. I urge the Government to get on and implement the provisions. Time has lagged too long now; almost two years have passed, and these safeguards and protections are absolutely critical.
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It is important to remind the House, especially those tempted to back the Lords amendments, of the reasons why we have this Bill and the partnership. Again, it is because
of the global challenges that we face on migration. This is not about a disregard for human life. That is what the people traffickers have, and that is what we are having to tackle: lives lost at sea in the channel, and horrific and brutal acts. I have heard about them and I have seen them and I know, sadly, too much about criminal gangs benefiting and profiteering from these barbaric acts.
The partnership itself is evolving; it is starting to look somewhat different from the original economic and migration partnership, and that links to the concept of voluntary removals raised by the shadow Front-Bench spokesperson the hon. Member for Aberavon (Stephen Kinnock). We touched on it last Thursday in the estimates debate as well. In the light of the recent announcement, I am sure the Minister will address it and that their Lordships and all Members will want to press on it as well. There are benefits to voluntary returns—the principle has been in place for a number of years and it does work and we should encourage it—but there is the whole issue about re-entry bans. Section 40 of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 amended section 24 of the Immigration Act 1971 to deal with re-entries. We have to be honest about this: they do take place even though voluntary removals happen. Whatever happens in terms of the operationalisation of this Bill, it is important now that loopholes are shut down effectively. The voluntary removals scheme is strong, but we must make it work.
My final point is that that there are so many aspects to these amendments, even Lord Browne’s amendment. It is tragic that we are debating Afghans who should have been resettled in the right way in our country for various reasons. It pained me to listen to the Lords debating this. We have a proud record in this area and all of our constituencies have been host to so many people from Afghanistan. I remember Operation Pitting as if it was yesterday; it was a moment of crisis and Border Force staff were put into Afghanistan and into Kabul to do the right thing—to do the airlifts and to work with the Ministry of Defence. It was a harrowing time, but the Afghan relocations and assistance policy scheme and the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme and everything that followed was done in good faith, and we must uphold those principles.
To conclude, this is a pivotal moment for the Safety of Rwanda Bill and the Government’s overall approach. I will be voting against the Lords amendments but, whatever direction the House chooses to take on this overall policy, we must recognise that we are sending out a very strong message to the British people, who are exasperated because they see a Government whose hands are constantly tied. There is a carousel now—a revolving door with setback after setback—and the Government must now be given not just the benefit of the doubt, but the tools and the ability to get on and operationalise this policy. We are at a pivotal stage.