Clause 2 - Entering United Kingdom without passport
Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Bill
2:45 pm
Ms Beverley Hughes (Minister of State (Citizenship and Immigration), Home Office; Stretford and Urmston, Labour)
The amendments would make it not an offence to arrive without a valid passport or other document for that purpose if a person can produce some other documentation, including an out-of-date passport, which satisfactorily establishes identity and nationality or citizenship for themselves or their children. That would mean that a person could produce any sort of document purporting to establish their identity, nationality or citizenship.
I shall make some specific points, but it is important at the outset to go back to the intention of the clause, which we discussed this morning: it is to catch those who deliberately destroy the documents that they used for embarkation to the UK in the first place. It is not to catch the people who may be able to arrive here without the passport or other documentation that enables them to travel but perhaps with some evidence of experiences testifying to their claim to be refugees and in need of asylum. The clause is not to catch those people; it is precisely to catch people who we believe have deliberately destroyed their documents.
There are several reasons why accepting the amendments would compromise the intention of the clause. First, if someone could produce any other sort of document to establish their identity, nationality or citizenship, the task for the immigration service, the police and the prosecution would be to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the documents did not establish any of these, or indeed were forgeries. Given that the documents could come from any part of the world, possibly from different kinds of organisation, and by definition, in comparison with a passport, could be easily forged, the burden of proof beyond reasonable doubt on our prosecuting authorities would be very difficult and unreasonable.
Secondly, even if we or the courts were satisfied that the documents established identity, nationality or citizenship, there is no guarantee at the end of the asylum process, if people's claims are not accepted, that the country of nationality or citizenship would be satisfied that that document was sufficient for them to accept back a person whom we needed to return.
I made it clear to hon. Members that as well as trying to change people's behaviour so that they do not destroy documents, one of the main purposes of the proposal is to ensure that, at the point of claim, by avoiding the destruction of documents, as far as possible we can identify a person and establish their nationality with a high level of credibility. Thus we can do what hon. Members on both sides of the Committee want: return more people whose claims fail. That would be very difficult if we accepted at the outset of the process a document that the very countries from which those people came would not accept as sufficient proof of nationality.