Clause 16 - Asylum-seeker: definition
Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill
10:15 am
Mr Humfrey Malins (Woking, Conservative)
I will be very brief on the amendments, which are drafting points.
Amendment No. 130 is designed to delete clause 16(1)(c), which states that a person is an asylum seeker if he is 18, a claim has been made and the Secretary of State has recorded it. The point is simple. In my view, the claim for asylum is made when it is made, not when it is recorded or filed away by the Home Office. Given the propensity of the Home Office not to act immediately on the making of an asylum claim it seems that a person is an asylum seeker if he is an 18-year-old and has made an asylum claim at a designated place. To say that he is not an asylum seeker until the Secretary of State has recorded the claim is to give the Secretary of State ages and ages to file the claim. After all, in most other matters in life, one becomes a claimant when one makes the claim;
one does not have to wait until the claim has been recorded. It is a drafting point, and I hope that the Minister will deal with it by accepting the amendment.
Amendment No. 131 was suggested to me by a most respected NGO, the Immigration Advisory Service. It is an anti-trafficking and anti-child abuse proposal that is designed to ensure that minors not under social services supervision are kept only in the company and care of people who are genuinely responsible for their best interests.
My amendments are minor, and I hope that the Government will take them on board.