The other lesson I have learnt from meeting a wide range of asylum seekers—and this, in a sense, follows on from what my right hon. Friend has said—relates to the skills they can bring to our country, and how desperate they are to make a contribution. All they want is for their cases to be processed, because the vast majority, even those detained in the two detention centres in my constituency, will win their cases and be received into the community. Their problem is that the processing situation means they cannot travel here through the normal processing arrangements, and when they do get here they are having to wait for up to two years just
to have their cases heard. I do not think that the provisions in the Bill will deter desperate people from coming here in this way.
My second point concerns the amendment relating to the assessment of children. The hon. Member for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner (David Simmonds), who is not present now, mentioned me because we both represent the London Borough of Hillingdon, which has accepted more unaccompanied children than any other borough because of its proximity to Heathrow. We have had a problem with age assessments, but it is not the problem that the media home in on, which is elderly people being assessed as children; it is the other way round. Children are being forced through a process that can be very demeaning and can have an impact on their mental health, and then are eventually found to be children, as all the statistics demonstrate. It is a brutal system. All that the amendment would do is ensure that assessments are carried out by those who are experienced in the process, namely local authorities.
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My third point is connected with my experience of asylum seekers in my constituency. It relates to Afghans who have come here after working alongside our own military personnel in Afghanistan and being let down dramatically by our Government. They have been left in Afghanistan with their families in a desperate plight, often having to go from house to house to hide and, in doing so, recognising that they are putting a family at risk. Some have been advised to get to the nearest border, but, whether it is the border with Iran or the border with Pakistan, they will be sent back. However, if they can break through that system and get here, they are treated almost like criminals, although many have put their lives at risk in supporting this country.
The Minister said today that a review of the scheme is under way, and that that will be taken into account. The review appears to be the solution, and it needs to be undertaken immediately, but while it is going on, may I urge the Government to exempt the people who have served us in Afghanistan from this process? Otherwise, we will be sending to Rwanda people to whom I think we owe some loyalty, and who have experienced traumatic dangers to their lives while serving us.
That brings me to my final point. This morning I heard a Conservative MP on the radio justifying the overriding of domestic law and the courts themselves as if it were some rebalancing between the Executive and the courts. It is not a rebalancing; it is riding roughshod over the system of law that we have in this country, which involves respect for the decisions of the courts. Let me issue a warning to the Government and to Conservative Members: this sets a precedent in placing an awful lot of power in the hands of the Executive. Just think what a Government with a huge majority could do in using that precedent in the future! The unbalancing that is happening at the moment places the ultimate choice between reality and unreality in the Government’s hands, and people will live to regret setting that precedent if we are not very, very careful.
This is a rubbish Bill, and it should be thrown out. I congratulate those in the other place on doing their best to bring some sense to it, but regrettably we will not be able to throw it out. The best we can do is vote for the amendments tonight and send a message back to the
Lords: they should keep fighting, because at least they have some sense of the reality of what people seeking asylum in this country are experiencing.