Clause 47 - Detention centres: change of name
Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill
5:15 pm
Ms Angela Eagle (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Wallasey, Labour)
Our purpose in renaming detention centres removal centres is to reinforce the key role that detention plays in the removal of those who have no lawful basis to stay in this country. It does not signal a change of function for such centres, which will remain designated places of detention for the purposes of immigration legislation; nor does it signal a change in the powers to detain.
The amendment would restrict the use of detention in a removal centre to certain classes of people, such as those who at the time of their detention could not lawfully be removed from the United Kingdom, those who are removed within two months of their detention, or those who are over 18. It would mean that we would have to release people in spite of the
evidence used to put them in detention—people whom we fear would abscond or are close to being removed. For example, we would be unable to detain an asylum seeker whose claim or appeal was outstanding. That would cause chaos in the system.
I assume that the hon. Gentleman, like the rest of the Committee, wants a system wherein the failure of an asylum claim—the person is not granted any other form of leave to remain—ultimately results in an outcome different from that of a claim that ends in someone being granted refugee status. Otherwise, the hon. Gentleman should tell me the point of the system.