Clause 2 - Entering United Kingdom without passport
Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Bill
10:45 am
Mr Tom Harris (Glasgow Cathcart, Labour)
I will make a few brief comments in response to the hon. Gentleman. I would have framed my remarks in the form of an intervention, but as the idea went through my head I realised that it would have been out of order to make such a long intervention.
I have some sympathy with what the hon. Gentleman said, but also some concerns. First, I wonder whether including the proposed time scale in legislation, so that someone could claim asylum and then have three days in which to provide papers, would be an invitation to certain individuals to approach people on the black market for false documents. I do not know whether the Home Office has any intelligence to justify that concern, but the amendment gives rise to it.
Secondly, if an individual who approaches an officer to claim asylum but falls foul of the legislation as it stands can produce legitimate documents at a later date, it is surely for a court to decide whether that is a legitimate defence. I am not sure whether establishing such provisions in legislation is necessary, because it is not assumed by the Home Office or in the Bill that every person who is prosecuted in such circumstances will automatically be found guilty. After all, everyone has to go to court to plead their case, and they will be given the opportunity to mount a defence. Even if someone who has their documents falls foul of the procedure, they will be able to appeal to the discretion of the court, and their case will, I hope, be given a fair hearing.
I ask the hon. Member for Woking: if someone was in this country on holiday or business, circumstances changed in their country back home and they felt that they needed to apply for asylum, why would they do so without taking with them the documentation with which they arrived in the first place? If people are in this country, for whatever reason, they must be aware of the need to have brought their formal legal documentation with them.
I find it hard to believe that any individual, after seeing television pictures of their home country and realising that things have gone from bad to worse, would approach the asylum service to ask for asylum without realising that they should produce a passport or other travel documents to do so. I will be interested to hear what my right hon. Friend the Minister has to say. I just wanted to put on record my concerns about the amendments.