(Edinburgh South West)
(SNP):...Lords amendment 103 would amend the Crime and Courts Act
2013 to confer on the National Crime
Agency specific functions to tackle cross-channel
organised crime. And under Lords amendments 104 and 107, the
Government would set up a 10-year strategy on refugees and human
trafficking, working with foreign Governments. Do those four
amendments not constitute a credible alternative?
The Minister for Immigration (): As it happens, I will come
to each of those points later in my speech, if the hon. and
learned Lady does not mind, but in each case, we are already
doing what she asks us to do. The Bill has a specific provision
in respect of safe and legal routes and, when we had this debate
in this House previously, we agreed further to set out the
details of that. As for the National Crime
Agency its officers who work on organised
immigration crime—I met them in recent weeks in Belgium, France,
Italy, Tunisia and Libya—would be very surprised to hear that the
agency does not have the authority to act on organised
immigration crime because those in some cases very brave men and
women are doing that work every single day on our behalf
already...
...Lords amendment 103 relates to the functions of the National Crime
Agency and I am afraid that it just amounts to
legislative grandstanding. The NCA’s statutory functions already
cover tackling organised immigration crime. As such, the
amendment simply risks undermining the operational independence
of the director general by tying his hands as to how to organise
the NCA to best deliver its objectives. As I said in answer to an
earlier question, our colleagues at the NCA who work every day on
organised immigration crime would be very surprised to hear the
contention that they are not focused on this work, because they
certainly are...
(Aberavon)
(Lab):...Amendments throughout the Bill’s passage have focused on
mitigating its most egregious excesses, while trying to steer the
Government in the direction of Labour’s five-point plan to fix
the broken asylum system that, despite their protestations,
Conservative Members know full well is a comprehensive agenda
based on hard graft, common sense and quiet diplomacy, rather
than the headline-chasing gimmicks they have come up with. Our
plan includes repurposing the Rwanda money to the National Crime
Agency to recruit a specialist unit of officers to
tackle the criminal gangs upstream. Lords amendment 103, in the
name of , places responsibility on the
NCA to tackle immigration crime...
(Kingston upon Hull North)
(Lab):...Finally, I support Lords amendments 102 on safe and
legal routes. It is clear that giving a two-month period for the
Government to come back with a plan of implementation for safe
and legal routes is a very sensible measure. The Home Affairs
Committee made it clear in our report that safe and legal routes
was one of the clear recommendations the Government should adopt
if they seriously want to tackle the small boats problem. I also
support Lords amendment 103 on the National Crime
Agency and organised immigration crime enforcement,
which I think is a very useful and helpful amendment, and Lords
amendments 104 and 107 from the on the 10-year
strategy on refugees and human trafficking, which I again think
would help the Government in dealing with the small boats
problem...
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