Clause 1 - Assisting unlawful immigration
Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Bill
9:30 am
Ms Beverley Hughes (Minister of State (Citizenship and Immigration), Home Office; Stretford and Urmston, Labour)
Yes, it corrects an omission so that countries can be included that cannot formally be designated as member states but that none the less are Schengen signatories.
The clause allows the Secretary of State to make an order prescribing additional states that are to be regarded as member states for the purposes of the section, if he considers it necessary for the purpose of complying with the United Kingdom's European Union obligations. The nationals of these states are also to be deemed to be citizens of the EU for the purposes of section 25 of the 1971 Act. This is necessary to comply with the EU Council directive and the EU Council framework decision relating to these matters. The directive and associated framework decision require member states to create the offence of assisting a person who is not a national of a member state to enter or reside in a member state contrary to the laws of that state. The offence must apply in relation to Norway and Iceland as well as to the member states of the Union.
Subsection (2) makes a minor amendment to section 25C of the 1971 Act to make it clear that the references to ''member State'' and ''immigration law'' in subsection (9)(a) have the same meaning as in section 25.