My Lords, my name is on the amendment because I regard it as the most important matter of honour that we must deal with in the Bill. The whole House admires the stamina with which the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, has pursued this issue. I declare an interest as a trustee of the Refugee Council, which was run by the noble Lord for many years and still runs on Dubs energy and still gets his constant support.
On this issue, the House was persuaded by the noble Lord’s arguments in 2016, and again in 2018. We are now in a curious position where the Government say that the 2018 provision is undesirable and needs to be replaced with this new one. The most important thing about the Government’s proposed new Clause 37 is that it kills Section 17 of the 2018 Act. What is the difference between the two? The 2017 Act laid on the Government the obligation to “seek to negotiate”—not to negotiate, because we cannot do that because a negotiation has two sides—a deal for these children. Everything else in the proposed new clause is the same as in Section 17, except that we now find that the Government must make a statement to us on what their policy is.
I am not terribly worried about the Government’s policy here. I believe the assurance given by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Keen, at Second Reading, that the Government’s policy has not changed. I believe that the Government want this to happen. However, I am not clear about what priority the Government attach to it and I am very suspicious that they wish to use it as a negotiating card. That is what is most alarming to me and, to be honest, most disgusting. The fate of these children should not be seen as a matter for negotiation.
The noble and learned Lord, Lord Keen of Elie, on Monday night made one substantive argument against this amendment, apart from saying that government policy has not changed—on which, as I say, I believe him. He said:
“It is vital that the Government are not legally constrained in those discussions.”—[Official Report, 13/1/20; col. 554.]
Implicitly, that means that the Government might not wish to pursue this and might wish to try to trade willingness to do this for some concession by the other side. That seems particularly offensive.
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I support everything the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, said, particularly about the argument that the noble and learned Lord, Lord Keen, did not use on Monday
night but that one hears in the corridors: that there is no need for this provision here and it would be better placed in the immigration Act or in Immigration Rules. The noble Lord, Lord Dubs, has demolished these arguments, but I add one more to his. The provision in law now, Section 17 of the 2018 Act, and the provision in this clause—the Government’s new language—are about reciprocal obligations. We would be negotiating to get the other 27 to agree to take unaccompanied children who are in this country and would like to be reunited with their families somewhere in the 27. That clearly is not appropriate to Immigration Rules or the immigration Act, because it is about people leaving the country, but it is highly appropriate to the negotiation about to start. That is why it should be in this Bill. I support the amendment.