My Lords, this is another group of positive measures that are intended to provide an antidote to the other measures in this Bill. As the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, explained, Amendment 115 would be akin to a replacement for the Dubs scheme that provided a safe route for unaccompanied children from countries in Europe to come to the UK.
Amendment 116, as we have heard, sets a minimum target for the number of refugees resettled in the UK of 10,000. There appears to be some logic and reasoning behind that. A number of organisations have suggested that number. We discussed before in Committee how an agreed number of refugees accepted by the UK each year could be arrived at, taking into account such matters as the number of claims per 10,000 population compared with other European countries. As the noble Lord, Lord Kerr, said, we are in the middle of the pack as far as Europe is concerned, at the moment.
We agree and, as my noble friend Lady Ludford said, the 10,000 number happens to be Lib Dem policy as well. Of course, that could be flexible on the basis of the capacity of the country to take refugees and the number of refugees being taken by our allies. It is a global problem that requires the UK to play its part, along with other countries both inside and outside Europe, one also addressed by Amendment 119E in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, which seeks to provide a statutory general UK resettlement scheme.
I have spoken before about the Government’s ambition to
“break the business model of the people smugglers”
and how the unintended consequences of the measures in this Bill are reinforcing that business model, making it more and more difficult for genuine asylum seekers to get to the UK without people smugglers’ help. Amendment 118 is a way to seriously damage the people smugglers’ business model. As my noble friend
Lady Hamwee said, the amendment seeks to pre-screen would-be UK asylum claimants and allow those with a realistic prospect of success, and who have serious and compelling reasons for coming to the United Kingdom, to come to make a claim for asylum and remain temporarily while their claim is considered.
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If those in northern France, for example, know there is no point in making the dangerous journey across the channel, because they have been told their claim is unlikely to be successful while still in France, they are likely to be deterred. While they still believe there is a chance, they may be tempted to risk their lives. The proposal is set out in detail in the amendment, as my noble friend explained, together with an appeals mechanism in Amendment 119, and we strongly support these amendments.
The noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy of The Shaws, seeks emergency visa provision in light of her work with those fleeing Afghanistan, and we support her Amendment 119A, which I believe would also cover the circumstances set out by the noble Lord, Lord Alton of Liverpool, allowing members of groups affected by the crime of genocide to apply for asylum at British overseas missions. We support all the amendments in this group, which are designed to balance the onslaught against allowing refugees to settle in the UK, which most of this Bill represents.