Clause 112 - Assisting Unlawful Immigration, &c.
Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill
4:00 pm
Mr Simon Hughes (North Southwark and Bermondsey, Liberal Democrat)
Amendment No. 330 is an alternative to amendment No. 329. We have moved swiftly to part 7 on offences, which is the last substantive part programmed for consideration today. The amendments relate to the first proposed new offence, which will replace the definition of the offence in section 25 of the 1971 Act with the more widely drawn offence of assisting unlawful immigration to a member state. The second provision in the clause covers the similar but different offence of helping asylum seekers to enter the UK.
The new offences should not be so widely drawn. Various phrases do not appear to have a prehistory in other immigration legislation, and some look as if they will be difficult to understand and interpret, not least because they require an understanding of other nations' immigration law as well as our own. Other phrases are also difficult to work out, such as those in new sections 25(1) and (2) about travel within the state. There is the question of how severe the penalty should be in order to draw up a league table that puts penalties in an appropriate hierarchy so that there are no inappropriately severe ones.
Amendment No. 324 would add ''and for gain'' to the provision on the new offence of assisting unlawful immigration to a member state. We tabled the amendment because we believe that the clause's purpose is to try to stop the illegal trafficking of people, especially women and children for sexual exploitation, as the hon. Member for Walthamstow noted. That is entirely proper, but I have a general question for the Minister. Would it not be more appropriate to include that offence in sexual offences legislation? I understand that such legislation is on the stocks, and that the Home Office has consulted on it and issued a White Paper. The Government may say perfectly reasonably that they want to include that offence in the Bill to catch people early. That is fine, but its eventual destination is the sexual offences legislation, when it is brought before Parliament.
On alternative penalties, the penalty for the offence in new section 25(6) is
''on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years, to a fine or to both, or...to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or to both.''
The suggestion is that if we have a 14-year maximum penalty for an offence as it is currently described, we shall not follow the nature of the penalties in the Bill or distinguish between the offences of trafficking for the purpose of exploitation, which is extremely serious, and facilitating that, which is a lesser offence. People might be agents or aide and abet down the line, but while some are directly involved in bringing harm to someone, others are either not involved or involved only indirectly.
What thought have the Government given to that differential and what consultations have taken place on whether the Bill provides for the right penalties? Practitioners have told me that there should be different penalties for different offences, and it would be helpful if the Minister told us what consultations have taken place, what responses the Government have received and their justification for the proposed penalties.