My Lords, people do it for different reasons and that is where the difficulty lies. If we do not extend the offence of
facilitating a breach of immigration law to include facilitating arrival, we cannot hold people smugglers to account for such actions. Organised criminal gangs are sophisticated. As I said, they know that if they ensure that their human cargo is put into the unenviable situation of requiring rescue, the facilitators behind such events can escape prosecution and this is the loophole that we are trying to close.
I have spoken to Amendment 124 and think it is sufficient to rely on the existing safeguard of prosecutorial discretion to meet our international obligations, rather than to provide an express defence for Article 31 to be applied. In cases where a statutory defence is not available to a refugee, the purposive and humanitarian aims of the refugee convention should be borne in mind by the CPS when considering the public interest test. With that explanation, I hope, the noble Baroness will feel free to withdraw her amendment.