I will go on to explain that in just a minute, if my noble friend will bear with me. In fact, I will explain it now. When do you arrive in the UK? Basically, it happens when you reach the UK’s internal waters. The new offence will be attempting to arrive in our territorial waters, which is 12 nautical miles out. To clarify, internal waters are defined by UNCLOS.
On Amendment 123, at the forefront of our minds are the migrants whose lives are being placed at risk by criminals who act to exploit and endanger them. Clause 39(4) is aimed at those criminals. We must take action to prevent and prosecute people-smuggling. The law as it currently stands accounts only for unlawful “entry” and not “arrival” into the UK. A person who facilitates the arrival of migrants rescued at sea and brought to a UK port where their only intention is to claim asylum, in accordance with a recent Court of Appeal judgment, does not commit an offence under Section 25 of the Immigration Act 1971. The Court of Appeal ruled that this is because the intention of the migrants is not to enter the UK illegally.
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The change in methods and the way people seek to come to the UK through irregular routes, particularly by small boat, shows why the current law is no longer considered entirely fitting. As many individuals are now intercepted in UK territorial seas and brought into the UK, they arrive in but may not technically enter the UK within the current definition. It is this loophole that Clause 39 seeks to close. I hope that explains things to my noble friend.
We must ensure that incidents such as the recent and tragic loss of 27 migrants are not repeated. They lost their lives at the hands of facilitators who provided them with inadequate means to reach the UK safely. If we do not extend the offence of facilitating a breach of immigration law to include facilitating “arrival”, we cannot hold these people smugglers to account for such actions. Organised criminal gangs are sophisticated and know that if they ensure that their human cargo is put into the unenviable situation of requiring rescue, rather than safely landing in the UK, the facilitators of such events can escape prosecution. We must close this loophole.