My Lords, I speak in place of the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh of Pickering, and welcome the opportunity to speak on the amendments she proposed. I wish she could be here to speak on Amendments 37, 38, 42 and 49. I hope to do justice to her concerns and offer a bipartisan dimension to our treatment of the Bill.
It is perhaps important for me to say before launching myself into the amendments that my clear preference would always have been to propose the elimination of Clause 11 in its entirety. Having said that, however, I respect the intention behind the amendments in seeking to eliminate the distinction between two tiers of refugees. I hope that nobody groans when we cite the 1951 convention, which prohibits the penalisation of refugees
“on account of their illegal entry or presence, on refugees who, coming directly from a territory where their life or freedom was threatened … present themselves without delay … and show good cause for their illegal entry or presence.”
The Bill before us purports to change the way in which the provisions of the convention are applied, with important divergences from hitherto accepted practices.
I am a member of the Council of Europe. I was asked to compile a report to commemorate the 1951 convention; my report was endorsed by the Council just a few weeks ago. In writing it, I worked in collaboration with UNCHR officers in London, Strasbourg and Geneva. This has led to my conviction of the vital importance, in seeking a way through these critical issues, of maintaining the closest possible working relationship with UNHCR. Everyone I consulted in writing my report agreed that the key underpinning tenets of the convention are non-refoulement, non-discrimination and non-penalisation. Those are the principles that must be upheld at all costs, however much circumstances may have changed.
Although I am hugely critical of the Bill, I must, in reality, acknowledge that the United Kingdom is only one of a number of nations in search of new ways of dealing with what is undoubtedly a global crisis. A wide variety of measures has been put forward across our continent. In my report, I cited the following; some were mentioned in our previous debate. There are those who are pushing asylum seekers back, or else denying them disembarkation. Others are protecting their borders, building fences, sometimes deploying their military and even using live ammunition. Some are transferring their protection obligations to other—usually poorer—nations and isolated islands, detaining asylum seekers in poor conditions indefinitely. There are those set on criminalising solidarity and life-saving activities: making the saving of lives, the feeding of starving people and providing shelter to families in need a crime. Nor must we forget those who resort to the use of Covid-19, economic challenges or irregular arrivals of migrants as cover for disproportionate measures, restricting access to asylum and rights. The proposals in the Bill, set alongside the proposals of other nations that I just cited, would effectively undermine the very principles and obligations of the 1951 convention.
It is my view that our consideration of these important questions should seek always to be in harmony with the advice of UNHCR. That commission provides authoritative guidance in a manner consistent with the 1951 convention’s ambition to ensure,
“the widest possible exercise of these fundamental rights and freedoms”
by refugees. UNHCR, incidentally, has responsibility for all the 80-plus million refugees spread around the world.
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The amendments we are considering are seeking what is fundamentally guaranteed by the 1951 refugee convention: namely, fair and equal treatment and, especially, non-discrimination. Not to observe these principles would set us at odds with the demands of international law. What is more, it would create a totally unworkable situation if applied more generally: 73% of refugees are hosted in countries neighbouring their country of origin. The noble Lord, Lord Coaker, mentioned one such example.
The proposals as currently put forward in the Bill would disrupt global co-operation, since no system could be built on the expectation that those countries bearing the majority of migrants do more and geographically distant countries do less. Furthermore, no system could be built on the expectation that those arriving in our country unconventionally deserve worse treatment than those who arrive via conventional routes.
In Committee, it is important to recognise the exploratory nature of our discussion. The proposal in Amendment 37 would remove the differentiation between two categories of people arriving on our shores and vest them with greater dignity and humanity.
In conclusion, I find a proposal dominated by the often-repeated slogan “Taking back control of our borders” is in direct contradiction to the spirit of those British lawyers—yes, British lawyers—who not only helped frame the 1951 convention but ensured at a subsequent meeting of plenipotentiaries that,
“governments in the countries of first refuge”
would
“grant the right of asylum within their territories with the utmost liberality,”
and that other countries would,
“undertake jointly with the countries of first reception to bear the costs arising out of”
such efforts. It went on to urge governments to
“continue to receive refugees in their territories and that they act in concert in a true spirit of international co-operation in order that these refugees may find asylum and the possibility of resettlement.”
We should note the key phrases in this declaration: “utmost liberality”, “bearing the costs jointly”, and
“in a true spirit of international co-operation”.
That was the spirit in which British negotiators reached their conclusions in 1951. Somehow, we must rediscover this generosity of spirit that moves beyond the merely contractual, beyond what might appear be mere self-interest, and towards a collective effort in our attempt to find solutions to our problems.
This seemed to be what the Minister agreed to in her summing up speech at Second Reading on the Bill on 5 January. On that occasion, after a typically spirited defence of government policy, she readily accepted the need for us to work with our international partners to tackle what really are shared global challenges. She concluded:
“All countries have a moral responsibility to tackle the issue of illegal migration.”—[Official Report, 5/1/22; col. 668.]
It is not difficult to agree with her on that. But it is harder to accept the assurance she gave that, as she put it,
“we remain in line with our international obligations”.—[Official Report, 5/1/22; col. 666.]
A refusal to accept the two-tiered proposals, as put forward in these amendments, would be a small but important step in the right direction. I commend these amendments to the Committee. I beg to move.