Illegal
Immigration
The Prime Minister ()
Before I start, I know that the whole House will want to join me
in expressing our sympathies to the families of those who lost
their children in Solihull.
With permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to make a statement on
illegal migration. I hope that the whole House will agree that
there is a complex moral dimension to illegal migration. The
balancing of our duty to support people in dire need with the
responsibility to have genuine control over our borders
understandably provokes strong feelings. So it is my view that
the basis for any solution should be not just what works but what
is right.
The simplest moral framing for this issue, and one that I believe
Members on both sides of the House believe in, is fairness. It is
unfair that people come here illegally. It is unfair on those
with a genuine case for asylum when our capacity to help is taken
up by people coming through—and from—countries that are perfectly
safe. It is unfair on those who migrate here legally when others
come here by cheating the system. Above all, it is unfair on the
British people who play by the rules when others come here
illegally and benefit from breaking those rules. So people are
right to be angry, because they see what I see, which is that
this simply is not fair.
It is not cruel or unkind to want to break the stranglehold of
criminal gangs who trade in human misery and who exploit our
system and laws. Enough is enough. As currently constructed, the
global asylum framework has become obsolete. Today, there are 100
million people displaced globally. Hostile states are using
migration as a weapon on the very borders of Europe. As the world
becomes more unstable, and the effects of climate change make
more places uninhabitable, the numbers displaced will only grow.
We have a proud history of providing sanctuary to those most in
need. Britain helped craft the 1951 refugee convention to protect
those fleeing persecution. My right hon. Friend the Member for
Maidenhead (Mrs May) passed the world’s first Modern Slavery Act
in 2015. In the last year, we have opened our hearts and our
homes to people from Hong Kong, Afghanistan and Ukraine.
Thousands of families will be setting extra places around the
Christmas table this year. No one—no one—can doubt our generosity
of spirit.
But today, far too many of the beneficiaries of that generosity
are not those directly fleeing war zones or at risk of
persecution, but people crossing the channel in small boats. Many
originate from fundamentally safe countries. All travel through
safe countries. Their journeys are not ad hoc, but co-ordinated
by ruthless, organised criminals. And every single journey risks
the lives of women, children and—we should be honest—mostly men
at sea.
This is not what previous generations intended when they drafted
our humanitarian laws, nor is it the purpose of the numerous
international treaties to which the UK is a signatory. Unless we
act now and decisively, this will only get worse. Already in just
seven weeks since I became Prime Minister, we have delivered the
largest ever small boats deal with France, with significantly
more boots on the ground patrolling their beaches. For the first
time, UK and French officers are embedded in respective
operations in Dover and northern France. We have re-established
the Calais group of northern European nations to disrupt
traffickers all along the migration route. Last week, the group
set a long-term ambition for a UK-EU-wide agreement on migration.
Of course, that is not a panacea and we need to go much further.
Over the last month, the Home Secretary and I have studied every
aspect of this issue in detail, and we can now set out five new
steps today.
First, our policing of the channel has been too fragmented, with
different people doing different things being pulled in different
directions. So we will establish a new, permanent, unified small
boats operational command. This will bring together our military,
our civilian capabilities and the National Crime Agency. It will
co-ordinate our intelligence, interception, processing and
enforcement, and use all available technology, including drones
for reconnaissance and surveillance, to pick people up and
identify and then prosecute more gang-led boat pilots. We are
adding more than 700 new staff and also doubling the funding
given to the NCA for tackling organised immigration crime in
Europe.
Secondly, those extra resources will free up immigration officers
to go back to enforcement, which will, in turn, allow us to
increase raids on illegal working by 50%. And it is frankly
absurd that today illegal migrants can get bank accounts which
help them live and work here. So we will re-start data sharing to
stop that.
Thirdly, it is unfair and appalling that we are spending £5.5
million every day on using hotels to house asylum seekers. We
must end this. We will shortly bring forward a range of
alternative sites, such as disused holiday parks, former student
halls and surplus military sites. We have already identified
locations that could accommodate 10,000 people, and are in active
discussions to secure these and more. [Interruption.]
Mr Speaker
Order. Someone has flashed a camera. It is quite serious to take
photographs in the Chamber. If the Member knew they had taken a
photograph, I would expect them to leave the Chamber. It is
totally unacceptable to disrupt the Prime Minister when he is
speaking.
(Mansfield) (Con)
It was an accident.
Mr Speaker
I hope the photograph is deleted. Go out and have a chat with the
Serjeant at Arms, because it did not look that way to me.
The Prime Minister
These sites will accommodate 10,000 people, and we are in active
discussions to secure them and many more. Our aim is to add
thousands of places through this type of accommodation in the
coming months, at half the cost of hotels. At the same time, as
we consulted on over the summer, the cheapest and fairest way to
solve this problem is for all local authorities to take their
fair share of asylum seekers in the private rental sector, and we
will work to achieve this as quickly as possible.
Fourthly, we need to process claims in days or weeks, not months
or years, so we will double the number of asylum caseworkers. We
are radically re-engineering the end-to-end process, with shorter
guidance, fewer interviews and less paperwork, and we are
introducing specialist caseworkers by nationality. We will also
remove the gold-plating in our modern slavery system, including
by reducing the cooling-off period from 45 days to 30 days, the
legal minimum set out in the Council of Europe convention on
action against trafficking in human beings. As a result of all
these changes, we will triple the productivity of our caseworkers
and we expect to abolish the backlog of initial asylum decisions
by the end of next year.
Fifthly, and most significantly, a third of all those arriving in
small boats this year, almost 13,000 people, are Albanian, yet
Albania is a safe, prosperous European country. It is deemed safe
for returns by Germany, France, Italy and Sweden. It is an EU
accession country, a NATO ally and a member of the same
convention against trafficking as the United Kingdom. The Prime
Minister of Albania has himself said there is no reason why we
cannot return Albanian asylum seekers immediately. Last year,
Germany, France, Belgium and Sweden all rejected almost 100% of
Albanian asylum claims, yet our rejection rate is just 45%. That
must not continue, so today I can announce a new agreement with
Albania and a new approach.
First, we will embed Border Force officers in Tirana airport for
the first time ever, helping to disrupt organised crime and stop
people coming here illegally. Secondly, we will issue new
guidance for our caseworkers to make it crystal clear that
Albania is a safe country. Thirdly, one of the reasons why we
struggle to remove people is that they unfairly exploit our
modern slavery system, so we will significantly raise the
threshold someone must meet to be considered a modern slave. For
the first time, we will require a caseworker to have objective
evidence of modern slavery, rather than just a suspicion.
Fourthly, we have sought and received formal assurances from
Albania confirming that it will protect genuine victims and
people at risk of re-trafficking, allowing us to detain and
return people to Albania with confidence and in line with ECAT.
As a result of these changes, the vast majority of claims from
Albania can simply be declared clearly unfounded, and those
individuals can be swiftly returned. Lastly, we will change how
we process Albanian illegal migrants with a new dedicated unit,
staffed by 400 new specialists, expediting cases within weeks.
Over the coming months, thousands of Albanians will be returned
home, and we will keep going with weekly flights until all the
Albanians in our backlog have been removed.
In addition to all these new steps, let the House be in no doubt
that, when legal proceedings conclude on our migration and
economic development partnership, we will restart the first
flights to Rwanda, so that those who are here illegally and
cannot be returned to their home country can build a new life
there.
However, even with the huge progress that we will make with the
changes I have announced today, there remains a fundamental
question: how do we solve this problem once and for all? It is
not just our asylum system that needs fundamental reform; our
laws need reform too. We must be able to control our borders to
ensure that the only people who come here come through safe and
legal routes. However well intended, our legal frameworks are
being manipulated by people who exploit our courts to frustrate
their removal for months or years on end.
I said, “Enough is enough”, and I meant it. That means that I am
prepared to do what must be done, so early next year we will
introduce new legislation to make it unambiguously clear that, if
you enter the UK illegally, you should not be able to remain
here. Instead, you will be detained and swiftly returned either
to your home country or to a safe country where your asylum claim
will be considered. You will no longer be able to frustrate
removal attempts with late or spurious claims or appeals, and
once removed, you should have no right to re-entry, settlement or
citizenship.
Furthermore, if our reforms on Albania are challenged in the
courts, we will also put them on a statutory footing to ensure
that the UK’s treatment of Albanian arrivals is no different from
that of Germany or France. The only way to come to the UK for
asylum will be through safe and legal routes and, as we get a
grip on illegal migration, we will create more of those routes.
We will work with the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees to identify those who are most in need so that the UK
remains a safe haven for the most vulnerable. We will also
introduce an annual quota on numbers, set by Parliament in
consultation with local authorities to determine our capacity,
and amendable in the face of humanitarian emergencies.
That is the fair way to address this global challenge. Tackling
this problem will not be quick; it will not be easy; but it is
the right thing to do. We cannot persist with a system that was
designed for a different era. We have to stop the boats, and this
Government will do what must be done. We will be tough but fair,
and where we lead, others will follow. I commend this statement
to the House.
Mr Speaker
I call the Leader of the Opposition.
12:47:00
(Holborn and St Pancras)
(Lab)
I thank the Prime Minister for advance sight of his statement. I
also echo his comments about the tragic loss of life in Solihull,
which is unimaginably unbearable for the families, the friends,
and the whole community.
Channel crossings are a serious problem requiring serious
solutions. We need leadership at home and abroad, we need a Home
Office that functions effectively, and we need to defeat the
criminal gangs operating on the coast. Time and again, however,
this Government have not provided serious solutions. The Prime
Minister sat around the Cabinet table the whole time. Where there
should have been solutions, we have had unworkable gimmicks.
As I listened to the Prime Minister’s statement, I thought, “All
of that has been said before, almost word for word.” It was said
the last time we had measures—the last time we had legislation.
There have been plenty of newspaper headlines about wave
machines, prison ships and fantasy islands, but there has been no
effective action. It is all designed to mask failure, to distract
from a broken asylum system that cannot process claims, cannot
return those with no right to be here, and cannot protect our
borders.
Over 40,000 people have crossed the channel this year—that is a
record—but only 2% have had their asylum claim processed. What
happens to the other 98%? They are placed in hotels, costing
around £7 million a day. That is bad for refugees who want to
rebuild their lives and bad for taxpayers. And 2022 is not just a
one-off bad year; it has been bad under the Tories for years.
Last year, the percentage of channel crossing asylum claims
processed was just 4%. Let those figures sink in, because that is
the root of the problem. Something has to be done to clear the
backlog.
I welcome the commitment to fast-track clearly unfounded claims.
That is what we have been calling for, and Britain is two years
behind so many of our neighbours and allies, who have been
fast-tracking for years. Can the Prime Minister confirm—I want to
have an answer on this—that he will clear the backlog by the end
of next year? That is 150,000 cases in the
backlog—[Interruption.] I know he has said it, but there are
150,000 cases, including the 100,000 that have been there for
over six months. We need clarity about that.
I also welcome more staff for processing. It is appalling that
the Government let the backlog get this big. Nearly 100,000 cases
have been waiting more than six months for a decision. That is
the root cause. But processing is only part of the answer.
Criminal gangs are sending these people to risk their lives, and
they thrive because of a total failure of any co-ordinated
response or effective deterrent to their criminal activity. For
months, we have been calling for action to tackle this root
cause: a specialist cell in the National Crime Agency to catch,
prosecute and disband criminal gangs. We need to be working
internationally to end this cross-border crime. Again, new staff
are welcome, but can the Prime Minister guarantee that that will
result in prosecutions of those who put lives and national
security at risk?
Money is being wasted on the unworkable, unethical plan to deport
people to Rwanda: £140 million has been wasted already, with not
a single deportation. The most senior civil servant in the Home
Office is the only one in Government to tell the truth: it does
not even work as a deterrent. The Prime Minister has promised
more legislation, but the last time the Government legislated to
tackle the broken asylum system, they made it worse. Since the
Nationality and Borders Act 2022 came into force, crossings and
delays have increased, and 18,000 cases have been put through the
new process, adding a further six months, with only 21 returns.
That is slow track, not fast track. How can the Prime Minister
have any credibility to say that new legislation is going to be
the answer? The unworkable gimmicks go on, and so do the
crossings. We need to bring this to an end, and that means a
proper plan to crack down on the gangs, quick processing, return
agreements: serious solutions to a serious problem. That is what
Labour will offer.
The Prime Minister
That speaks for itself, quite frankly. We are not going to take
any lectures from the Labour party on tackling immigration. The
right hon. and learned Gentleman has consistently tried to block
steps to strengthen Britain’s approach to illegal migration
throughout his career. Since he was elected, he has failed on 36
occasions to vote for stronger laws and we heard that again
today. He talks about processing and about the hotels, but the
only way to stop that problem is to stop the boats. We are the
only party that has a plan to tackle these issues, with a new
small boats operational command in the channel, deals with
Albania and France, cheaper accommodation, tougher immigration
enforcement, and new legislation making it clear in law for the
first time that, if you come here illegally, you cannot stay.
Labour now has a choice: will it show that it is on the side of
the British people and back our plans to stop illegal migration?
The right hon. Gentleman may want to stand in our way. He may
want to block laws. We are going to block the boats.
(Maidenhead) (Con)
I thank my right hon. Friend for his reference to my passing of
the Modern Slavery Act 2015. Does he agree that, in dealing with
asylum claims, the onus must be on the Home Office to improve its
processing; that, contrary to what is said by some commentators
and, sadly, some Members of this House, people smuggling and
human trafficking are distinct and separate crimes and should not
be treated or spoken of as one; that modern slavery is a real and
current threat, with too many people brought to this country into
slavery; and that we must do nothing to diminish our
world-leading protections for the victims of this terrible,
horrific crime?
The Prime Minister
I know the whole House will want to join me in paying tribute to
my right hon. Friend for her global leadership on that issue. She
is absolutely right that it is incumbent on us to ensure our
processing is swift and effective. I know she will want to join
me in ensuring that our world-leading modern slavery regime
actually helps the people who are most in need and most
vulnerable. They are the people who need our support and that is
what our reforms today will deliver.
Mr Speaker
I call the leader of the SNP.
(Aberdeen South) (SNP)
I wish to begin by passing on my thoughts and those of my
colleagues to the families and friends of those impacted by the
terrible tragedy in Solihull.
I am going to start by saying something that I think many on the
Benches behind the Prime Minister wish they could say. Nobody is
illegal. Indeed, there is no such thing as an illegal asylum
seeker. But what we all agree on is that the UK’s system is
broken and we cannot escape from the fact of who has broken it.
To address some of the problems that are faced, I welcome some of
what the Prime Minister said. I have personally visited hotel
accommodation and seen the damaging impact that those long stays
have had on people within it, so I hope we can all agree on the
positive words about speeding up the process.
However, I have grave concerns about the proposed legislation,
about the proposals on accommodation and about the
one-size-fits-all approach to asylum seekers emanating from
Albania. In that regard, I ask the Prime Minister a simple
question: has he consulted with the United Nations High
Commissioner on Refugees in respect of these proposals? If not,
why not?
Ultimately, the solutions lie not in any of the above proposals
but in ensuring that safe and legal routes exist. The Prime
Minister made extensive reference to safe and legal routes, so
let him rise to his feet and outline one single safe and legal
route—perhaps for a family member of an asylum seeker in
Afghanistan. The Home Secretary of course could not do so last
week.
It would be remiss of all of us in the Chamber not to reflect on
the independent Migration Advisory Committee’s report from this
morning, which detailed how important migration is to our public
sector, our private sector and indeed our economy. How on earth
does the Government’s hostile approach to migration assist with
that proposal?
The Prime Minister
I am happy to tell the hon. Gentleman that the Development
Secretary met the UN High Commissioner for Refugees last weekend.
A point of difference between us and the Opposition parties is
that we believe that we should not need the permission of someone
outside to control our own borders.
The hon. Gentleman also asked about Albania and our approach. I
gently point out to him that what we are doing is in line with
what almost every other European country already does with regard
to Albanian migrants.
Lastly, the hon. Gentleman made the frankly absurd claim that we
do not have safe and legal routes into the UK. In the last few
years, we have made offers of over 450,000 places to welcome
people from Afghanistan, Syria, Hong Kong and, most recently,
Ukraine. That is because this is a compassionate, tolerant
country, and it always will be.
Mr Speaker
I call the Father of the House.
(Worthing West) (Con)
The parliamentary leader of the SNP, the hon. Member for Aberdeen
South (), can put down a debate on
legal migration for next week; the subject today is illegal
immigration.
The questions in front of the House and the country are: how can
people be safe, how can their status be determined, will the
action work, is it necessary, and is it right? I think most
people listening, whether they normally support the SNP, Labour
or the Conservatives, will say, “Yes, it is necessary, it will
work, and it should go ahead.”
The Prime Minister
I thank my hon. Friend for his support. As he knows, this problem
is complicated—it is not easy, and it will not be solved
overnight—but I believe the plan that we have outlined today
represents the most serious step forward in getting a grip of it.
The task for us now is to deliver on it. With his support and
everyone else’s, I am confident that we can.
Mr Speaker
I call the Chair of the Home Affairs Committee.
(Kingston upon Hull North)
(Lab)
In our report on small boat crossings published in July, the Home
Affairs Committee made it clear that the No. 1 priority for
Government should be to clear the asylum backlog, so we are
pleased that that is now starting to be addressed. However, the
backlog of 150,000 has been building since 2013, so the more
recent small boat crossings have not broken the asylum system.
We noted how important it was to have sufficiently well trained,
motivated and supported decision makers to make good-quality
first decisions, but despite promises to increase decision-making
numbers, targets have been missed, and the staff attrition rate
in 2021 was a staggering 46%. In addition, the technology that
staff use is creakingly antiquated and was reported by the chief
inspector of borders and immigration as hampering productivity.
Will the Prime Minister ensure that he has sufficient staff to
carry out what he is seeking to do? With productivity currently
at 1.3 decisions per decision maker per week, with a Home Office
pilot to increase that figure to 2.7, can he explain exactly how
he is going to triple productivity?
The Prime Minister
I thank the Chair of the Select Committee for her excellent
questions; they are the right questions to focus on. We have
redesigned the entire process for caseworking on an end-to-end
basis, which will take productivity from 1.2, as she says it is
today, up to 4. We will do that in a relatively short period;
that is how we will cut the initial asylum backlog by the end of
the next year. That process is being rolled out as we speak.
The right hon. Lady talked about the reason for the backlog. It
is worth bearing in mind that the number of small boat crossings
has quadrupled in just the last two years. That is the scale of
the challenge that we are facing, and that is leading to
significant strain on the system. She also asked about numbers.
We have already, in the last year, doubled the number of
caseworkers to 1,200, and it will be doubling again in the next
nine to 12 months.
Lastly, I will just say that a big part of the reason why our
processing is slower than we would like is that, time and again,
people exploit our system to make late or spurious claims. That
is why our new legislation will tackle that problem, and I hope
it has the support of the Labour party.
(North Thanet) (Con)
I thank my right hon. Friend for his statement and for the
initiatives that he has taken with Monsieur Macron and the Prime
Minister of Albania. Those are two small but significant steps
forward. I also appreciate the fact that he is clearly going to
take personal charge of the backlog and ensure that the
lamentable performance of the Home Office to date is rectified.
However, does he agree that the only way that this problem will
be solved is on a pan-European basis and not domestically, and
that if we are going to deal with it, we have to deal with
Schengen and with countries beyond Schengen, and reach
agreements? Will he use all his efforts to seek to secure that?
The Prime Minister
I thank my right hon. Friend for his excellent question and for
his very constructive engagement with me and Ministers on
resolving this issue. I know he speaks up very well for his local
area on these matters. He is absolutely right, which why it is so
crucial that, in the last few weeks, not only have we restarted
meetings of the Calais group of European nations, which the Home
Secretary deserves enormous credit for, but she has put that
group on a permanent basis. We are making sure that we now go
further, working with Frontex, the European border agency,
towards a European returns agreement for the first time ever.
That is the path forward. The best way to solve this problem is
upstream, working with our allies in northern Europe, and the
plans and progress that my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary
has made are going to deliver exactly that.
(Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)
Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and community in
Solihull who have lost their young sons.
Some 97,000 people have been waiting for a decision on their
asylum claim for six months or more. That is 97,000 people
trapped for months in Home Office limbo, banned from working,
while the NHS, social care, agriculture and hospitality are all
desperately short of staff. Last month it was revealed that even
the Home Office’s own analysis shows that the right to work does
not act as a pull factor for asylum seekers, so will the Prime
Minister end this absurd ban on work, to save taxpayers money and
help to grow our economy?
The Prime Minister
The simple answer is no. We will not do that, nor will we grant
blanket amnesties, as happened in the past, to get the backlog
down. We will go through it methodically and properly. The best
way to reduce the pressure on the backlog is to stop people
coming here in the first place, and if the right hon. Gentleman
is interested in doing that, he should support our new
legislation.
(Bury North) (Con)
I warmly welcome today’s announcements. They are exactly what is
needed—I cannot think of anything more articulate to say than
that—but will my right hon. Friend reiterate the importance of
the Rwanda flights as part of the measures to address illegal
immigration? That is such an important measure.
The Prime Minister
My hon. Friend is absolutely right; the Rwanda policy is an
important part of our approach to tackling this problem, because
it must be the case that if someone comes here illegally we can
return them either to their own safe country or to an alternative
such as Rwanda where their claim can be processed. That is the
system we want to move to and that is what we will deliver.
(Eltham) (Lab)
Some 83% of small boat asylum claims made in the past four years
are still awaiting a decision. We have an attrition rate of 46%
among caseworkers. How is the Prime Minister going to achieve his
goals?
The Prime Minister
As I set out to the Chair of the Home Affairs Committee, we have
redesigned the end-to-end process for asylum processing, which
will triple the productivity of our caseworkers and cut through
the backlog. I say the same thing to the hon. Gentleman that I
have said to others: the best way to solve this problem is to
stop people coming here illegally, and the best way to do that is
to back our new legislation.
(East Worthing and Shoreham) (Con)
I strongly support these measures from the Prime Minister,
particularly on the disproportionate numbers of Albanian economic
migrants who are queue-jumping those genuinely fleeing danger. I
heard not a single practical solution from those on the
Opposition Benches—just collective amnesia about what they voted
against.
The Prime Minister knows that I favour safe and legal routes as a
counterbalance to tougher and swifter measures. Will he
therefore, in those safe and legal routes that we need to
develop, have a Dubs 2 scheme specifically aimed at unaccompanied
children in peril and a proper family reunion scheme for those
with close links to people legally here in the United Kingdom, so
that we can control and welcome those genuinely in need of safety
here?
The Prime Minister
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. As our actions over the past
couple of years have shown, this is an incredibly compassionate
and generous country, which has offered and always will offer
sanctuary and refuge to those who really need it. We need to do
that through safe and legal routes, and we want to have that
conversation with him and with others such as the Red Cross and
UNHCR about how to design those routes, but we can only have that
conversation and implement those routes once we have proper
control of our borders. That is what we must deliver first.
(Halifax) (Lab)
The Prime Minister said in his statement that we will remove,
“the gold-plating in our modern slavery system.” That modern
slavery system is something of which we, across the Labour
Benches, can be incredibly proud. It protected victims of modern
slavery and also, crucially, allowed us to secure prosecutions
against the abusers.
It is currently taking the Home Office 531 days on average to
arrive at a conclusive grounds decision for victims. Around 90%
of those decisions are positive, confirming that people were
indeed victims of modern slavery. This will affect British and
foreign children as well as adults, and some of those locked in
county lines gangs as well as in sexual exploitation. Why is the
Prime Minister tearing up the modern slavery system in this way?
The Prime Minister
That is simply not right. We are very proud of our modern slavery
system and we want to make sure that it protects those genuine
victims of modern slavery. It is absolutely right that they get
their cases considered properly. The reason why that is not
happening at the moment is that the system is being deluged with
far more claims than it was ever designed to cope with. When the
impact assessment on the Modern Slavery Bill was done, it
anticipated 3,500 claims a year. What we are now facing is 12,500
in just the first three quarters of this year. It is right that
we focus our attention on those who most need our help, and, in
doing so, we can get those people the help they need as quickly
as possible.
(Ashfield) (Con)
I live in a place called the real world. In the real world,
people know that the vast majority of those travelling here on
small boats are not genuine refugees. Even last week, at the Home
Affairs Committee, the Albanian ambassador admitted that
everybody coming from Albania is economic migrants. They are
coming here on small boats because they cannot come through a
legal route by getting visas. The public get it. Even the
Albanian ambassador gets it. We all get it. I ask the Prime
Minister: when will the Opposition get it and realise that the
vast majority coming over are not genuine asylum seekers?
The Prime Minister
My hon. Friend is a fantastic champion on this issue. He is
right: we on the Conservative Benches are on the side of the
British people. It is as simple as that. The Opposition today
have put forward no plans, no action. We will soon see, Mr
Speaker. When we bring forward legislation to stop the boats,
they have a choice: do they want to back our legislation and be
on the side of the British people?
(Belfast East) (DUP)
I thank the Prime Minister for the important suite of proposals
that he has outlined this afternoon and say that we will
constructively engage with his Ministers on any legislation that
is introduced. He has rightfully highlighted Syria, Afghanistan,
Hong Kong, Ukraine, and the pressures that there have been in the
Home Office over the past number of years, with staff moved
continually from one place to another, and to passports and back
again. That is in large part responsible for the backlog, so he
is right to double the number of caseworkers. Will the new
Albanian team of 400 form part of that doubling—is that
additional staff, or staff moved from elsewhere?
The Prime Minister
That is part of the doubling, and that unit will be specifically
trained to process the Albanian migrants in line with our new
system and our new policy guidance, which will shortly be issued
by the Home Office. In doing that, we are confident that we can
start processing Albanian claims in a matter of weeks rather than
months, and, with our new agreement, we can swiftly send them
back to Albania. That is what the Albanian Prime Minister thinks
should happen. That is what European countries do, and that is
what we will do in our country, too.
(Haltemprice and Howden)
(Con)
I strongly welcome the seriousness with which the Prime Minister
addresses this issue, particularly his focus on stopping the
Albanian gangs.
With respect to the dispersal centres, when the Home Office
attempted to introduce a dispersal centre in my constituency, it
ignored the local authority’s concerns about healthcare, public
services and children’s services. It then also ignored the
existing level of Albanian organised crime in Hull and did not
even consult the local police chief before it moved on the
matter. Needless to say, it did not consult any of the local MPs
either. If we continue in this mode, the Home Office will face
judicial review after judicial review and the policy will not
work. Can we please see a radical improvement in decision making
in the Home Office in this process?
The Prime Minister
First, I thank my right hon. Friend for his engagement with us
and his specific suggestions on tackling the issue of Albanian
migrants—I hope he is pleased by what he has heard today, which
reflected much of what he suggested. On the issue of
accommodation, I agree with him. As all Members know, this is a
tricky issue for us to manage, but we will manage it with
sensitivity and care, and with strong engagement with colleagues
and local authorities. I make that commitment to him, and I will
make sure that that is followed up.
(Oldham East and
Saddleworth) (Lab)
The Prime Minister mentioned that he wanted to work with the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees and that the Foreign Minister had
already met the high commissioner. Did the high commissioner
support these measures and their efficacy?
The Prime Minister
As I said earlier, on the Conservative Benches we believe in
sovereignty. When it comes to controlling our borders, we will of
course act in line with our legal obligations, but we will do
what must be done to fix the unfairness and make sure we stop
illegal migration.
Sir (South Swindon) (Con)
I commend my right hon. Friend for his practical approach to a
problem that needs practical solutions. In urging him to press on
with the work to improve the efficiency of the system, including
the tribunal appellate system, I urge the Government to work with
the tribunal procedure committee to reactivate the detained
fast-track procedure, which has been suspended for seven years
now. I think it could be a reasonable part of the solution to
this problem.
The Prime Minister
My right hon. and learned Friend obviously has expertise on this
issue. He is absolutely right about that process and the help
that it can provide. He will be pleased to know that the
Immigration Minister and the Attorney General met the authorities
recently. We will look forward to taking forward his suggestions.
Dame (Hackney South and Shoreditch) (Lab/Co-op)
In 17 years as a Member of this House, I have never known
backlogs, in every avenue of Home Office processing, to be so
great and so slow. The Prime Minister asked for suggestions. If
he really wants to reprocess the Home Office’s procedures, he
could take out the ridiculous rule that people have to renew
their indefinite leave to remain every 30 months, putting the
same people back through the system to come out with the same
outcome. He could, in one fell swoop, reduce the backlog. Will he
do it?
The Prime Minister
I just gently point out to the hon. Lady that the backlog now,
difficult though it is, is half as big as it was under the last
Labour Government. Unlike then, we will not resort to giving
people blanket amnesties, because that is not the right approach.
(Barrow and Furness) (Con)
I warmly welcome this statement. Tackling the backlog is
absolutely key to getting the heat out of the issue and dealing
with it fairly and firmly. The same approach on Albania is
welcome, too. Does my right hon. Friend agree that although
Albania is the issue of the moment, this issue will move around
the globe, and going upstream to tackle the criminal gangs, who
have imported their dangerous business model from the Aegean to
the channel, is absolutely crucial? Will he share his thoughts on
that?
The Prime Minister
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. That is why we are doubling
the funding for Operation Invigor at the National Crime Agency,
which will mean that it can disrupt twice as many organised crime
gangs upstream—that is a European effort, and it has proven to be
very successful in the past. It will get double the amount of
resources to help to disrupt the gangs upstream in the first
place.
(Cumbernauld, Kilsyth
and Kirkintilloch East) (SNP)
I have a very, very simple question for the Prime Minister: does
he agree that any proposed Bill or policy that breaches the UN
refugee convention or the European convention on human rights
should be rejected out of hand?
The Prime Minister
Our legislation will ensure that if someone comes to this country
illegally, they will not have the right to stay here. It is a
simple proposition; it is a fair proposition; and it is one that
is supported by the vast majority of people across our country.
(Epsom and Ewell) (Con)
I warmly welcome my right hon. Friend’s statement. This is a huge
step in the right direction. I am particularly encouraged by what
he says about Albania and tighter guidance for those processing
decisions. Will he extend that process of tightening guidance to
other countries from which people arrive and too often simply get
through the system? I am thinking particularly of countries such
as Vietnam, which is a fast-growing, prosperous country, making
the case for claiming asylum considerably weaker than in the
past. Will he also strengthen guidance for such countries?
The Prime Minister
Yes is the simple answer. Section 94 of the Nationality,
Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 already gives the Home Secretary
the ability to designate safe countries. Many are already there,
and we will continue to add to them as appropriate.
(Walthamstow) (Lab/Co-op)
The Prime Minister talks about the views of the British public. I
am pretty sure that the British public also think that children
should not be punished for the decisions of their parents. It may
be an inconvenient truth on this planet, but one in five of those
coming in small boats are under 18, as verified by the Home
Office, not people on Twitter.
For six weeks, I have been asking the Government for the details
of the safeguarding provision. During that time we have had
multiple reports of children—who are with their families in those
hotels for months on end—being sexually assaulted and abused.
Nothing that the Prime Minister announced today will change that
situation and how we treat those children, or apply the same
rules to those children as we do to other children in temporary
accommodation with their families. Will he now at least do the
decent thing and make the safeguarding contract public so that we
can see what provision the Government have made to look after
those children, and will he make a commitment that families will
be housed separately from single people?
The Prime Minister
The Government take their obligations towards children extremely
seriously. Of course it is right that they are treated
differently, and that is why the Immigration Minister has met the
hon. Lady and we continue to make sure that safeguarding is
followed throughout our processing system.
(Staffordshire Moorlands)
(Con)
My right hon. Friend is right to identify that illegal
immigration and the associated people smuggling are global
problems that need global solutions. May I press him to use his
good offices to urge the United Nations to make this a topic for
the next General Assembly and to introduce an annual Heads of
Government conference that focuses on the issue?
The Prime Minister
I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend for the work she did in
bringing about the Modern Slavery Act: she deserves praise and
credit for that. She is right: as I mentioned, the global picture
on migration has completely changed since most of these treaties
were signed. It is right that countries such as ours update their
approach to the modern problem that we face, and her idea is a
terrific one.
(Canterbury) (Lab)
Does the Prime Minister agree with Enver Solomon, the chief
executive of the Refugee Council, who said in The Times
yesterday:
“Instead of seeking to restrict the right to asylum the
government should ensure timely and fair decisions, with access
to legal advice, so that those who need protection are allowed to
stay and those with unfounded claims are returned with dignity.
At the same time there must be more safe routes such as family
reunion visas”?
That is an issue that many hon. Members across the House have
raised for several years.
The Prime Minister
I agree with all of that, and that is what the reforms I have
announced today will deliver. The best way to do that is to
ensure that the pressure on our system is not unsustainably high,
and that is why we need to stop the flow of new illegal migrants
coming here, which is why legislation is important, as well as
our Albania deal. I want to see the same thing as the hon.
Lady—swift and effective processing of those who come here
through safe and legal routes and the return of those who should
not do so.
(Stone) (Con)
First, does my right hon. Friend accept that the legislation that
he has announced is overdue? Secondly, it needs expressly to
differentiate economic and illegal migrants from genuine
refugees. The only way that can be done in law is through
bypassing the notwithstanding formula in the European convention
on human rights to ensure that we can achieve the objectives that
he has set out. That needs to be done as soon as possible.
The Prime Minister
I am confident that our legislation will deliver the asylum
system that we want to see, and I can tell my hon. Friend that it
will come very early in the new year. We want to crack on and
solve the problem, and I look forward to having his support.
(Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)
When my mother fled war and famine in Biafra in the 1960s with
her three small children, the cargo plane on which we
travelled—the only form of transport available—landed first in
Lisbon, as Portugal was the only country that recognised Biafra
at the time. Does the Prime Minister think that we should have
been obliged to remain in that relatively safe country, or does
he agree with my mother that it was better to travel on to
Newcastle, where my grandmother lived?
The Prime Minister
This country has and always will have a proud tradition of
welcoming people here. We need to ensure that we can do that, but
we cannot do that if our system is under unsustainable pressure
from people who should not be here. By having proper control of
our borders and ensuring we create a deterrent effect for those
coming here illegally, we will be in a position where people do
not have to travel through other countries to get here. We can
work with the UN, the Red Cross and others to provide sanctuary
for them wherever they are. In the long run, that is the fairest
and most sustainable solution to this problem.
(Bromley and Chislehurst)
(Con)
I congratulate the Prime Minister on targeted and practical
measures. Does he agree that what he proposes is entirely
consistent with our international obligations and, in particular,
entirely consistent with our obligations under the European
convention on human rights and the European Human Rights Act? Is
it not better to concentrate on practical measures, rather than
upending our domestic human rights legislation, which frankly
would be a wasteful red herring?
The Prime Minister
I thank my hon. Friend for his support. He makes a good point. As
I said earlier, the vast majority of European countries already
reject almost 100% of claims from asylum seekers from Albania,
for example. They are all signatories to the same conventions and
treaties as us, so there is no reason why we should not be able
to move to exactly the same rejection rate.
(Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
(PC)
I express my heartfelt sympathies to the people of Solihull
following this week’s terrible disaster.
We all know what today’s announcement is: a sop to the right-wing
press. It continues the Prime Minister’s obsession with
scapegoating asylum seekers. Fast-tracking applications and
weakening modern slavery protections directly undermine Wales’s
nation of sanctuary policy, which includes an explicit commitment
to prevent people seeking sanctuary from becoming victims of
modern slavery. What discussions has he had with the Welsh
Government to guarantee that fast-tracking will not frustrate our
ambition to be a proper nation of sanctuary?
The Prime Minister
We were the first country in the world, thanks to the leadership
of my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May), to
pass the Modern Slavery Act 2015, with a dedicated regime that
does not exist in that form in basically any other European
country. We require our businesses to enforce their supply chains
and we have life sentences for people who traffic modern slaves.
I am very proud of our record. That record will continue, but we
need to ensure our system is not abused and exploited. That is
what we will fix with our reforms.
(Middlesbrough South and East
Cleveland) (Con)
I warmly welcome the package of measures announced today, because
this is the key issue on the doorstep in my constituency. It is
something voters care about very deeply. The package being put
together is very strong and, as my right hon. Friend says, it
complements the Rwanda agreement. Can he just confirm, however,
that if it is, like the Rwanda agreement, ultimately frustrated
by the European convention on human rights, we will rule nothing
out, including derogation, to ensure we can deliver this vital
package?
The Prime Minister
Having been on those doorsteps in Middlesbrough South with my
right hon. Friend, I know he speaks the truth and he is right to
highlight this issue for his constituents. We will legislate to
put our Albania proposals on a statutory footing. I am highly
confident that those should be delivered. As I said, they are
already in practice in all other European countries, so there is
no reason why they should not happen here, too.
(Rhondda) (Lab)
The Prime Minister said we will restart data sharing to stop
migrants getting bank accounts. Who are we going to be restarting
data sharing with and why did we stop?
The Prime Minister
The hon. Member will remember, I am sure, that after the Windrush
situation data sharing was stopped in a range of different places
and has not restarted. We will be restarting data sharing with
the banks, so that when someone tries to open a new bank account,
and on a quarterly basis for existing bank accounts, the banks
will have to check against the database of illegal migrants that
we hold to ensure people cannot disappear into the black economy
having arrived here illegally and then participate in a normal
way. That is not right and not fair, and I am glad he will be
supporting the proposals.
(South Thanet) (Con)
I am very pleased to hear about the new approach to Albanians,
which is both obvious and very sensible. My question to the Prime
Minister is on how we bridge the gap. We approve 76% of all
asylum applications, but the EU average is just 14%. We are all
ECHR signatories. They are not held out as international pariahs
or as breaking any abstract of international law. The Prime
Minister may be surprised to hear that I have no issue with the
ambit of the ECHR as long as we have an outcome of about 14%,
too. What has been going wrong with our approvals and refusals
process?
The Prime Minister
My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. A big part of that
difference is how we are treating Albania. That will be changed
as a result of our new guidance and deal. More broadly, one of
the changes that we have made today is to increase the threshold
that someone has to meet to be considered a modern slave. It was
based on simply a suspicion that someone may be; we are changing
that to make sure that there is objective evidence that they are.
That change will help us to close down some of those grant rates,
but there is more work to do and that is what our legislation
will deliver.
(Putney) (Lab)
The white list of countries designated safe is not new, and
Albania has been on that list since 2014, so there is nothing new
about this announcement. I welcome the clearing of the backlog.
The Prime Minister just said that he knew that workers would be
employed within the next nine to 12 months, and the whole backlog
would be cleared from the current 100,000—it was 3,000 when
Labour was in power—in the same 12 months. So without the
immigration workers there, how will this circle be squared and
how will be the backlog be cleared?
The Prime Minister
I urge the hon. Lady to go and check her figures. It was
certainly a lot higher than that under the last Labour
Government. As my hon. Friend the Member for South Thanet () said, we are currently
rejecting only 45% of Albanian asylum seekers, compared to all
European countries, which reject more like 98% to 100%. The
changes we have made today will ensure that our rate increases up
to the levels that we see elsewhere. That is as a result of the
new deal that we have negotiated with Albania, which will give
more comfort to our caseworkers. Combined with the new guidance
that will be issued, that will mean that we should, as we want
to, return the vast majority of Albanian migrants when they come
here. They should not be here; Albania is a safe and prosperous
country and they should go back there.
(Dover) (Con)
I thank my right hon. Friend for his statement and for the new
approach on Albania. As much as I welcome the jobs, will my right
hon. Friend confirm that this will be a temporary, not permanent,
new small boats operational command centre in Dover and east
Kent? In relation to safe countries and immediate returns, will
my right hon. Friend update the House on whether a date has been
set for the summit with President Macron next year?
The Prime Minister
I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for all the work that she does on
this issue in her constituency. She is right. We want to get
through the challenges that we face to have a system in which
people do not come here illegally. Once we have that, of course
we should be able to draw down people after we have got the
backlog cleared. She is also right to highlight the importance of
working with the French. That is why our new deal is so
important, but there is work to build on. We are keen to have
that summit as early as practically possible, but it is important
that it delivers tangible outcomes, and that is what the Home
Secretary and I are set about doing.
(Edinburgh South West)
(SNP)
Yesterday I led a delegation of the Joint Committee on Human
Rights to the Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. One of the
issues we discussed was the importance of all Council of Europe
states addressing migration issues in accordance with human
rights and international law. International refugee law does not
require asylum seekers to make their claim in the first safe
country and it protects asylum seekers arriving via irregular or
unofficial routes, provided they make their presence known to the
authorities. Can the Prime Minister give me an undertaking that
his new laws will comply with the United Kingdom’s international
law and human rights obligations, and if not, can he tell us from
which treaties he intends to derogate? Or is it simply his
intention to flout international law and, if that is the case,
what kind of example does he think that sets to other countries,
particularly on Europe’s eastern border?
The Prime Minister
The hon. and learned Lady will know that the Immigration and
Asylum Act 1999, the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002
and the Dublin agreement all consider the proposition that it is
possible to return people who have come here who should not be
here. It allows the possibility of designating safe countries,
and of removals, so that principle is well established in
international law. We want a system whereby, if people come here
illegally, they will not be able to stay. That is a simple,
common-sense, fair principle that the vast majority of the
country is right behind.
(South Holland and The Deepings)
(Con)
It is rare in this House, Mr Speaker, to agree with every single
sentiment, impulse and word—unless it is a speech of my own, of
course—but I did today, and I congratulate my right hon. Friend
the Prime Minister. His set of measures is apposite and
appropriate, and it will be appreciated across the country. Will
he, as most of my constituents would, when people travel across
safe countries, as they frequently do before they claim asylum,
automatically assume that their claim is spurious or at least
doubtful?
The Prime Minister
That is what our new legislation will deliver. It will make it
unambiguously clear: if you come here illegally, you will have no
right to stay and will be removed either back to your own safe
country or to a safe alternative. That is the right system to
have. It is the fair system to have. It means that we can
concentrate our generosity and compassion on those around the
world who most need it, which I know is the type of system that
my right hon. Friend wants to see.
(Halton) (Lab)
We should not forget why we are here with the statement: it is
because the Government have lost control of the asylum and
immigration system and shown a degree of incompetence that takes
some beating. Three years on, they have also failed to meet their
manifesto commitment to take back control of the border with a
new system that would give real control. Will the Prime Minister
firm up his statement and confirm that he is confident that the
whole backlog of initial asylum decisions will be removed by the
end of next year? Will he tell us why he did not say anything
about how long he expects it will take to remove from the country
those asylum seekers who have failed in their applications?
The Prime Minister
Yes, our plan is to clear the initial asylum backlog by the end
of next year. It is about 117,000 on currently published
statistics. The hon. Member talked about the Government and where
we are, but he forgets to mention that if we look at what is
currently happening across Europe, we see that the number of
asylum claims in France and Germany is up by 50%, and that is
because the global migratory patterns have completely and utterly
changed. That is why the current system is obsolete and why we
need to take steps to adapt to the new regime and ensure that we
have proper control of our borders. That is what our reforms will
deliver.
(Ashford) (Con)
I strongly support the measures announced by the Prime Minister
and, in particular, his framing of the issue as a matter of
fairness, because tough but fair border controls and asylum
policy is exactly where the British people are. Does he agree
that in communities across the country, including my
constituency, the visible measure of success will be when some of
the hotels currently housing asylum seekers can be returned to
their normal use? Will he make that a priority?
The Prime Minister
I thank my right hon. Friend both for absolutely championing the
issue for his constituents and for the advice that he has
provided to the Home Secretary and me, given his experience, on
how best to tackle the problems that we face. I very much value
and appreciate that support. He is absolutely right: what people
want to see is our hotels going back to their normal use in their
communities and flights departing that remove people who should
not be here. The Home Secretary, the Immigration Minister and I
will work tirelessly to deliver that for him and for the country.
(Brighton, Pavilion)
(Green)
The Prime Minister talks about fairness, yet what he set out is
the very opposite of a fair and efficient system. The best way to
stop desperate people from dying in small boats and to stop the
criminal gangs is for the Government to promote more safe and
legal routes. Why are they so incapable of doing that
effectively? Why can he find 500 new staff for his Albanian
scheme but only eight people to process the 11,000 asylum
applications from Afghanistan? That means that, contrary to what
the Foreign Secretary suggested in the Chamber barely an hour
ago, there have been zero Afghans resettled from Afghanistan
under the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme pathway 3 since
January.
The Prime Minister
We have in fact safely settled more than 23,000 people from
Afghanistan in this country. The hon. Member talks about safe and
legal routes and actually, in the last year, we issued more
humanitarian visas than in any other year since the second world
war. That is the strength and depth of our compassion, and that
is what we will always do, but we cannot have that compassion and
generosity exploited by people who break the rules. There is
nothing fair about that, and it does nothing to help the people
we really need to target. That is what we will do.
(Ruislip, Northwood and
Pinner) (Con)
I commend the Prime Minister on the approach that he has outlined
today. Are there plans to examine the processes used by other
states who are signatories to the European convention on human
rights that enable them to be so much more robust in dealing with
these issues within the law? Will he commit to working with those
countries to develop safe and legal routes so that together we
can ensure that that robust approach applies in the United
Kingdom just as it does in those other countries?
The Prime Minister
My hon. Friend asks an excellent question and the answer is yes:
that is what we have done over the past few weeks and what we
will continue to do, and our Albania deal builds on exactly that
learning. But where we can learn from other countries about how
to do this faster and better, with a higher rejection rate, that
is exactly what we want to achieve. With his support, I know we
can do it.
(Wirral South) (Lab)
I am a bit worried: while the Prime Minister might be okay with
his cheerleaders in here, I think he is out of touch, because the
British public—[Interruption.] The public do know who has been in
charge for the past 12 years. So as a matter of accountability,
which of the decisions made while the Prime Minister was sat
around the Cabinet table would he point as the reason why the
backlog is now 14 times bigger than when Labour left office?
The Prime Minister
Difficult though the backlog is, it is half the size that it was
when Labour was in office; the hon. Lady needs to get her numbers
right. She talks about the British people: what the British
people want is an asylum system that says, “When you come here
illegally, you cannot stay here, because that is not right and it
is not fair.” If she wants to be on the side of the British
people, she should back our new legislation.
(Rochester and Strood)
(Con)
I thank my right hon. Friend for the measures he has outlined
today, and I particularly thank him for his personal
determination to find practical solutions to a very real problem.
In my constituency the Home Office has, with Clearsprings, its
contractor, identified a disused building for dispersal
accommodation. While I greatly welcome the move from hotels to
more permanent accommodation, will my right hon. Friend make sure
the Home Office listens to the concerns and worries of the local
authority, police and public health, and make sure we are
deciding on locations that are appropriate and suitable?
The Prime Minister
I am really happy to hear from my hon. Friend, who has rightly
long championed this issue. I know she has spoken to the Minister
for Immigration about her concerns in her local area. I thank her
for her constructive attitude in working with us, but she is
absolutely right, and we will sit down and listen to her and her
local authority about what is appropriate and deliver sensible
solutions.
(Inverclyde) (SNP)
Because the existing system has failed so miserably, we have
asylum seekers in hotels throughout the United Kingdom. I shall
once again be meeting with asylum seekers in my constituency
prior to Christmas. Decanting them to disused holiday parks,
former student halls and surplus military sites does not solve
the problem. When can I tell them that they will be allowed to
sit down with an official from the Home Office so that they can
start their legal process of immigration?
The Prime Minister
The hon. Gentleman is right: what will solve the problem is
stopping people coming here illegally in the first place. That is
how we will solve the hotel problem. That is what our new
legislation will deliver, and I hope he will support it.
(Kettering) (Con)
I warmly welcome the Prime Minister’s action plan to tackle the
problem of small boat crossings and thank him for being true to
his word in prioritising this issue. The big issue in Kettering
is that the Royal Hotel, which is slap bang in the middle of
town, has been designated as an asylum hotel; it is one of the
most inappropriate settings imaginable. Will the Prime Minister
reassure my constituents in Kettering that the plan he has
announced today will be the quickest way to end the use of such
hotel accommodation?
The Prime Minister
I thank my hon. Friend, and he is absolutely right to stand up
for his constituents, but he is also absolutely right to
highlight that our approach is the best way to relieve the
pressure on local services, including the use of hotels, so that
we can return them back to their everyday use. We will do that
fastest by providing alternative sites, which we are working on,
and also by stopping the flow of small boats, and that is what
our plan will deliver.
(Stockton North) (Lab)
We have many thousands of asylum seekers across Teesside, and I
am personally very proud of how welcoming our communities can be.
However, my team in Stockton is working with many asylum seekers
who have been waiting for years and years for their asylum
applications to be processed, and they have waited in despair and
fear. All they want is a decision. How many of them can expect
one in the next few months?
The Prime Minister
The Home Secretary and I want to see exactly the same thing. That
is why with our new plan we will cut the initial asylum backlog
by the end of next year. People should get swift processing, but
in order to deliver that sustainably we need to reduce the
pressure on the system, and that means stopping the flow of new
illegal migrants coming here.
(Newbury) (Con)
It is absolutely right that there is alignment with our main
European counterparts in how we deal with asylum claims from safe
countries, so I congratulate my right hon. Friend on the
agreement with Albania. Given the automatic return principle that
will apply to arrivals from Albania, there will be an incentive
to try to conceal their true country of origin on arrival. We
already know that that is a problem with the channel crossings,
with people disposing of their ID documents mid-crossing, often
at the direction of people smugglers. In anticipation of this
issue, can he reassure the House that there will be a
sufficiently robust evidential threshold that will prevent people
from falsifying their claim?
The Prime Minister
I thank my hon. Friend for that excellent suggestion. I also give
her the reassurance that for the first time we will have British
officials stationed in Albania, particularly at Tirana airport,
and Albanian officials here in the UK to deal with the problem
that she identifies. I am confident that that joint working will
help us deliver the solution we want.
(Glasgow Central)
(SNP)
The Prime Minister’s statement today could not be more out of
touch with the people who come to my surgeries week in, week
out—and I have the highest immigration case load in Scotland. Can
he tell me why Mr H has been waiting a year past August for his
family reunion? He is from Afghanistan. Mr A has been waiting to
see his family as well. These men come to my surgeries in tears
because they cannot get reunited with their families. The truth
is that the Prime Minister’s safe and legal routes just are not
working. For those who do not even have the misfortune to be from
Afghanistan—if they are from other countries—there is no legal
route, and that is why so many people are coming here in boats.
That is the truth of the situation. Will he accept it is
unreasonable to make people wait for as long as he is in absolute
misery, for a decision that just is not coming?
The Prime Minister
I do not want people to wait, and that is why we need to stop the
flow of illegal migrants coming here, because they put
unsustainable pressure on the system. That means we cannot
process for her constituents and others as quickly as we would
like. However, with the new plan we have put in place, we will be
able to, and once we pass new legislation to stop the flow of
small boats, we will have far less pressure on the system and be
able to get people the decisions they need.
(Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)
I warmly welcome the Prime Minister’s statement, which will
answer many of the concerns expressed to me by constituents in
Barry and across the Vale of Glamorgan. My right hon. Friend is
taking a comprehensive, detailed approach with practical steps to
resolve this problem. In spite of the calls from Opposition
Members, does my right hon. Friend recognise that this is a
dynamic environment that will constantly evolve and change? Will
he remain open-minded to extending the regulations, and
tightening the regulations where necessary, to respond to the
ingenuity and innovation shown by some of these people
traffickers?
The Prime Minister
My right hon. Friend makes an excellent point. We need to remain
dynamic and nimble with the new challenges we face. I have said
this will not be an easy problem to fix or one we can do
overnight, but I am confident that if we apply ourselves in the
way I have set out, we will be able to stop the flow of illegal
migrants over time, and I welcome his support in doing that.
(Glasgow North) (Ind)
How much of what the Prime Minister is announcing today will be
paid for out of the aid budget?
The Prime Minister
Under the Development Assistance Committee OECD rules, the first
year of resettlement costs for asylum seekers is actually covered
by international agreements on aid. The Chancellor has provided
extra funding to deal with some of the pressures we are seeing as
a result of the 150,000 Ukrainians who are here, and we remain
one of the largest spenders on international development anywhere
in the world, and that is something of which we can all be proud.
(Stoke-on-Trent South)
(Con)
I very much welcome what the Prime Minister has announced today.
As he knows, Stoke-on-Trent has taken more than our fair share of
asylum seekers and refugees. That has put significant pressure on
services, council services, schools, hospitals and the police.
Will my right hon. Friend look at what more can be done to put in
place the money and the financial support to support those
services?
The Prime Minister
May I thank my hon. Friend and pay tribute to his local community
and the local council in Stoke for what they do? They go above
and beyond to provide support. He is right that they deserve our
support, too, and I know that the Minister for Immigration has
recently met the council, where engagement will continue.
(Tiverton and Honiton)
(LD)
Back in the summer, checks on the land border between Albania and
Kosovo were relaxed, so there was no need for citizens of either
state to register at the border when crossing. According to
INSTAT, the Albanian Institute of Statistics, more than 2.5
million people entered Kosovo from Albania in 2021. When I was
travelling between London and Pristina about 20 years ago, I was
stopped and questioned by British border staff. Will the
Government be embedding UK Border Force staff at Pristina
airport, given that the national and cultural border between
Albania and Kosovo is porous?
The Prime Minister
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his suggestion; I am sure that is
something the Home Secretary will discuss with her counterparts.
As for his broader point, he is right. For the first time, we
have UK officials in Albania working closely with the Albanian
authorities to disrupt the flow of illegal migrants at source,
and I will take his suggestion on board.
(North Devon) (Con)
I thank my right hon. Friend for his work on this issue. Let me
also take this opportunity to thank the Pickwell Foundation, the
volunteers and the GPs who are currently looking after people
seeking asylum who have been badly placed in a hotel in
Ilfracombe. On Monday, a single mum and her eight-month-old
daughter will make a 10-hour round trip to Cardiff for a
biometrics and interview appointment. Given his plans to
streamline the asylum system, can my right hon. Friend confirm
that, as matters improve, that will no longer take place?
The Prime Minister
I pay tribute to my hon. Friend’s local community in Ilfracombe
for the support they are providing; they deserve credit and
praise for that. As for her question, we want a processing system
that is humane but also swift and effective for people, and that
is what our reforms will deliver.
(Strangford) (DUP)
I thank the Prime Minister for his statement. This is clearly a
complex and difficult issue, and he is trying to find a way
forward. He has outlined the further steps that can be taken to
halt the illegal crossings that are causing people to lose their
lives in dreadful winter weather, which include working alongside
the French Government and port authorities to prevent the trips
from happening, but will he also use private companies with
expertise, skills and high ethical standards? I furnished the
Home Secretary with the contact details of one such company that
is keen and able to assist.
The Prime Minister
The hon. Gentleman is right that this is a complex issue. We are
happy to look at all the different ways in which we can make a
difference. I look forward to taking his suggestion on board, and
the Home Secretary will have heard what he has said.
(Gainsborough) (Con)
I was present at the meeting of the Committee on Legal Affairs
and Human Rights of the Council of Europe, which was alluded to
by the hon. and learned Member for Edinburgh South West (). The legal point that she
made is entirely right, and the Government must address it
because it is very serious. It is possible, under current
legislation, to arrest someone who lands on our shores and to
detain them, but very few have been arrested under the
Nationality and Borders Act 2022 because there are not legal
routes that these people can take.
I am not in favour of the Opposition’s argument in favour of more
open legal routes because, with 100 million displaced people in
the world, it is a policy that leads nowhere, but we have to
address this point. The problem is that every time we pass new
legislation, it is trumped by human rights lawyers who, correctly
under the law, appeal to the Refugee convention, the European
convention on human rights and the Human Rights Act. Will my
right hon. Friend assure me that if this new legislation does not
work, we will consider a derogation from the Refugee convention?
The Prime Minister
I thank my right hon. Friend for his excellent question. What our
legislation will deliver is a system whereby someone who comes
here illegally will not have the right to stay, and we will be
able to remove them to their own country or a safe third
country. That is the system of migration that I think he
and his constituents want to see, and it the system that this
Government will deliver.
(Bosworth) (Con)
I thank the Prime Minister, the Home Secretary and the senior
Home Office officials who have followed up my references to the
unacceptable process of allocating a hotel in Earl Shilton. I am
grateful for the changes that we have seen. In his statement, the
Prime Minister said it was unfair and appalling that we were
spending £5.5 million a day on this system. It is unfair to those
who are housed there, it is unfair to the communities who see
people spending this money, and it is unfair to the taxpayer. The
Prime Minister said that he had identified 10,000 spaces. Can he
say when those will become available and when people will be
moved out of the hotels?
The Prime Minister
This is something that my right hon. Friend the Immigration
Minister is working on at pace. We are keen to move as quickly as
we can and to secure value for taxpayers’ money through these
commercial negotiations. We think most of these sites can be
brought on at around half the cost of hotels, which represents a
significant saving. We are keen to deliver it as quickly as
possible.
Madam Deputy Speaker ( )
I want to be able to call everybody, but that requires short
questions.
(Sleaford and North
Hykeham) (Con)
Living in limbo in a hotel with an uncertain future is extremely
stressful, so I welcome the Prime Minister’s plans to process
claims as quickly as possible, but processing is only the first
step. He talks about 117,000 claims. Does the system have the
capacity to ensure that people who make a successful claim are
moved into permanent accommodation, and that those who make
unsuccessful claims are removed quickly?
The Prime Minister
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We want not only to process
people swiftly, but to have the ability either to integrate them
in the community, where required—we have done that brilliantly
through other schemes—or to remove them if they should no longer
be here. That is why one strand of this work is about
strengthening and tightening our returns agreements with other
countries, which should be a key part of our diplomacy. We must
have the ability to return people to safe countries, which is
something we will work on next year.
(North East Bedfordshire)
(Con)
I welcome the Prime Minister’s comprehensive statement, including
his willingness to reform assessment processes, but may I ask him
about accountability? We see many Government processes to improve
and achieve a policy outcome, but the public do not see those
outcomes achieved. They are worried that officials and agencies
are not held properly to account for achieving those objectives.
What are his thoughts on achieving the policy outcomes he has
outlined today?
The Prime Minister
I am confident because, in the Home Secretary and the Immigration
Minister, we have a crack team. I know they will work tirelessly
with their team to drive through the reforms announced today. My
hon. Friend the Member for North East Bedfordshire () is right to hold us to
account for that. Transparent metrics on processing, for example,
are already published quarterly. People want to see flights
returning people to Albania and elsewhere, and people coming out
of hotels. That is what we want to deliver next year.
(Loughborough) (Con)
The independent chief inspector of the UK Border Agency found in
July 2006 that there was a backlog of between 400,000 and 450,000
cases. On that basis, this announcement is very welcome. I thank
the Prime Minister for taking hold of this issue. When will we
see an actual reduction in the number of people in hotels across
the country? What capacity will we have to maintain those who
claim asylum, and who have a valid claim, in facilities other
than hotels across the UK?
The Prime Minister
The Immigration Minister, the Home Secretary and I are keen to
deliver alternative sites as quickly as we can commercially
negotiate and get them up and running. I want to see what my hon.
Friend the Member for Loughborough () wants to see, which is people
moving out of hotels and less pressure on local communities. That
is the type of accommodation we want to deliver.
(Gloucester) (Con)
I thank the Prime Minister and the Government for their great
progress on this immigration action plan, particularly their
progress with both the UNHCR and Albania. He will know that
delivery is key. In Gloucester, we do not want the situation to
be as it was in May 2010, when not only did my Labour predecessor
refuse to hand over any casework files, but we subsequently found
more than 4,000 asylum cases, some of which had been waiting for
resolution for more than 10 years.
The Prime Minister
My hon. Friend, as ever, makes a powerful point. I agree that we
need to deliver now, and we have a plan in place. That is what we
will focus on next year for his constituents and for the country.
I am confident that we can do it.
(Clwyd West) (Con)
I refer my right hon. Friend to the point made by our right hon.
Friend the Member for Gainsborough ( ). Can he specifically confirm
that the legislation to be introduced next year will deal with
the impediment set up by the European convention on human rights?
The Prime Minister
Our legislation will deliver a system whereby a person who comes
here illegally will have no right to stay and will be removed to
their own country or a safe third-country alternative. I think
that is a system the British people want to see, and it is the
system our legislation will deliver.
(Blackpool South) (Con)
A person who enters this country illegally should have no right
to stay here and should be swiftly deported—it really is as
simple as that. I commend the Prime Minister for his bold
statement in looking to legislate to that end. Does he agree that
starting flights to Rwanda as soon as possible is absolutely
integral to delivering this plan?
The Prime Minister
My hon. Friend put it clearly, succinctly and very well, and I
completely agree with him. We are keen to restart those flights
as soon as we can—we await the next stage of our legal
proceedings—but he should be in no doubt but that we remain
determined to make that policy work.
(Dudley North) (Con)
I thank the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary for their
renewed focus on this really key point, which matters a lot not
just to my constituents in Dudley North, but across the country.
I will again address the point my right hon. Friend the Member
for Gainsborough ( ) made and perhaps be a bit
more specific with the question. If the Prime Minister’s future
legislation is indeed scuppered by an intervention by the
judiciary or human rights activists’ lawyers, will he have the
political will to still force it through and implement what he
intends to do?
The Prime Minister
First, I thank my hon. Friend for all his engagement with me and
the Home Secretary on this issue. I know how important it is to
his constituents, and I hope he is pleased by the steps we are
taking today, but he is right that we need to go further. That is
why our legislation will make it unequivocally clear that those
who come here illegally have no right to stay, and his
communities should be confident that that is what this Government
will deliver.
(Aberconwy) (Con)
I thank my right hon. Friend for his personal attention to this
matter. I welcome his ambition for a fair and effective system
rooted in an understanding that the world has changed since the
1950s, but the devil is in the detail. On a practical point,
dozens of hotels have short-term—three-month—contracts with the
Home Office to deliver emergency accommodation for asylum seekers
right across the UK. My concern and my residents’ concern is:
will he reassure us, please, that these contracts will not simply
be renewed quietly and simply rolled over, but will be subject to
the same level of scrutiny that is promised on new contracts,
including consultation with the MP, the council and local public
services?
The Prime Minister
My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. I will make sure that
the Home Office looks at these things not with the automaticity
that he suggested might happen, but reviews them afresh and makes
sure that they are still fit for purpose.
(Workington) (Con)
I thank my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister for his
significant engagement in recent weeks on this and other issues.
For the benefit of my constituents across Workington, can he set
out his expected timescales for, first, removal of the threat of
unsuitable accommodation in Workington being used, and, secondly,
flights leaving the ground to Rwanda?
The Prime Minister
What I can tell my hon. Friend’s constituents and community is
that we want to deliver on this as soon as practically possible.
Our new deal with Albania will take effect in a matter of weeks,
so we will be able to swiftly return people—those who are already
here and any new arrivals—back to Albania. He knows that we are
keen to press on with finding new sites as soon as we can
commercially negotiate them to take people out of hotels. Of
course, with regard to Rwanda, we are waiting for the latest
court judgment, but he should be in no doubt but that we want to
deliver on that policy.
(Buckingham) (Con)
I am grateful to the Prime Minister for making this a top
priority, and I look forward to backing the legislation in the
new year. Turning to the legislation we already have, there are
significant powers of detention in the Nationality and Borders
Act 2022. Will he look again at how we can implement those, at
the very least for those who are accused of committing heinous
crimes, particularly against children?
The Prime Minister
My hon. Friend is right. We do have new powers, particularly on
the enforcement side. We are very keen to use them to strengthen
the deterrent impact, but as he knows, we need to go further, and
that is what our new legislation will do.
(Runnymede and Weybridge)
(Con)
I very warmly welcome my right hon. Friend’s announcement today,
and he is absolutely right. People living in Runnymede and
Weybridge want to see fairness in the system, which this
announcement will deliver. I particularly welcome the new returns
agreement with Albania. Does he agree that what will cut the
Gordian knot is having multiple returns agreements with multiple
countries, so that when people’s applications are processed and
found wanting, they can be returned swiftly?
The Prime Minister
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. As a matter of priority, we
are looking at those countries with which we already have returns
agreements, but where we are not sufficiently able to send people
back. We will renew our diplomatic efforts to make that a
priority, but also use visa penalties, where appropriate, to get
the outcomes that we need.
(Ipswich) (Con)
I welcome the Prime Minister’s announcement and the personal
attention he has devoted to this issue. My constituents continue
to be concerned about the use of the Novotel in Ipswich, which is
on a 12-month contract; I thought it was six, the Home Office
told me it was six, but it turned out to be 12—but that is by the
bye. I welcome the move towards cheaper and more basic
accommodation, but can the Prime Minister indicate when my
constituents will get a timescale for when the Novotel can be
back in proper use?
The Prime Minister
I share the frustration of my hon. Friend and his constituents
that their local hotel, like so many others, is currently being
used to house illegal migrants. That is wrong and we want to stop
it as quickly as we can. The Immigration Minister is working on
finding alternative sites as fast as possible, but we also want
to stop the flow of new illegal migrants so that there is
not unsustainable pressure on our local services. That is what my
hon. Friend and his community want, and that is what we will
deliver.
(Leigh) (Con)
Earlier this year my local paper, the Leigh Journal, wrote about
the human misery inflicted on the constituency of Leigh by a
Balkan organised crime group that was engaging in people
trafficking, but we have heard from some in the Opposition today
that there is “no such thing as an illegal asylum seeker”. Does
my right hon. Friend agree that that is sadly not the case and
that we have to face reality if we are to deal with this issue?
The Prime Minister
My hon. Friend makes an excellent and very clear point. At issue
today is illegal migration, which has significantly increased in
the past couple of years and is putting unsustainable pressure on
our local communities and public services. It must end, and our
reforms are a significant step forward in delivering that
outcome.
(Clwyd South) (Con)
Having been briefly the Minister for tackling illegal migration
this summer, I warmly welcome the Prime Minister’s statement. Can
he provide more details on how the new small boats operational
command will help to ensure that no small boat can arrive
undetected on our shores?
The Prime Minister
I thank my hon. Friend for his support of our approach. The new
small boat operational command will bring together our civilian
capabilities, our military and the NCA in a more unified way than
before and supplement that with new technology—aerial or
land-based surveillance, drones and radar—and in doing all that
will be able to maintain an exceptionally high interception rate
and increase the level of prosecutions we currently see. I know
that is something he will want to see happen.
(Stoke-on-Trent North)
(Con)
The people of Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke will
warmly welcome the Prime Minister’s statement, albeit cautiously
because they want to see delivery on the ground, but the mask has
slipped on the Labour party. Labour Members have been absent
throughout the majority of this statement in their north
Islington coffee bars, drinking chai lattes and scoffing down
quinoa. Over 19,000 people have now signed a petition titled “End
Serco’s Abuse of Stoke-on-Trent” because Serco is too busy taking
up our hotels. In fact, the Prime Minister’s own constituents
have signed the petition in this cause. Will he agree with my
constituents and his, and end Serco’s use of hotels in
Stoke-on-Trent?
The Prime Minister
I thank my hon. Friend and his local community for the way they
have approached this problem and the support they give to people
who need refuge. He is right that we cannot exploit that
generosity and compassion, so we must relieve the pressure on
hotels, and that is what our plan will deliver. Ultimately what
we all want to see and what the people of Stoke-on-Trent want to
see is an end to the boats coming, and that is what this
Government will deliver.
