My hon. Friend is right that so many practical, pragmatic and sensible measures could be taken to deal with the crisis in the channel—the Tory small boats chaos—but instead of focusing on those sensible and pragmatic measures, we are dealing with this white elephant of a programme that will never get anywhere and is costing millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money and absorbing huge amounts of our time. I absolutely agree with him on that.
Lords amendment 9, in the name of the noble Baroness Butler-Sloss, is also based on a moral imperative, as it would prevent the removal of potential victims of modern slavery to Rwanda until the individual’s process under the national referral mechanism is complete. It should go without saying that modern slavery victims should not be sent to Rwanda, and we are disappointed that the Government’s amendment (a) in lieu is a profoundly unserious attempt to reassure the House—not least because we have been here before and know that such promised reports are rarely worth the paper they are written on.
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We on the Labour Benches are also deeply concerned about unaccompanied children being inadvertently sent to Rwanda. We therefore support the noble Baroness Lister’s amendment 7B, which recognises the Government’s reasoning for rejecting her previous amendment by this time proposing that an age-disputed person who is appealing their decision can be removed to Rwanda only if a local authority has agreed and stated that that person is not a child.
The other Lords amendments all relate to the rule of law, and we support them. They simply articulate principles that Ministers have said they agree with from the Dispatch Box. The simple question is this: if Ministers believe that Rwanda is a safe country, why are the Government refusing to support those amendments? They say that the Bill abides by international law, so why not make that clear on the face of it? They say that Rwanda is
capable of meeting its obligations under international law, so let us see the evidence and agree a trust-but-verify mechanism, as set out in the amendments.