Clause 2 - Entering United Kingdom without passport
Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Bill
2:30 pm
Mr David Heath (Somerton and Frome, Liberal Democrat)
I beg to move amendment No. 63, in
clause 2, page 3, line 15, at end add—
'(11) Where a decision is made to prosecute a person for offences contained in this section, no prosecution shall be commenced until after the final determination of all proceedings in relation to—
(a) an asylum claim made under the Refugee Convention, or
(b) a claim made under the European Convention on Human Rights, or
(c) an application for leave to remain under the provisions of the Immigration Acts.'.
The amendment would allow for a period between the time at which the intention to prosecute is determined and the hearing of that prosecution in order to allow for the possible resolution of an asylum claim under the refugee convention or the European convention on human rights, or an application for leave to remain. It ties in with our wish to avoid complications in the operation of the Bill with article 31 of the convention. There is a serious mismatch, even with all the assurances that the right hon. Lady has given, between what is proposed in the Bill as a process and the rights of the individual accepted under article 31. We will come back to this issue under the next amendment.
Once the intention to prosecute has been established and the Crown Prosecution Service has decided that there is sufficient ground to prosecute, there is no problem in terms of process in not entering into a hasty prosecution at that point. Such a prosecution might be construed by a higher court as a curtailment of the rights of the individual under article 31 if it stands in the way of a proper determination of that person's status under that convention and their claims. I envisage huge benefits in doing things that way round. If the status of the individual is determined before the prosecution, we will know whether they will stay in this country or be asked to leave. We will know that at the point of release from detention, if detention is the result of the prosecution, they will either be put straight on to a plane back to their point of departure, or be admitted to this country on the basis of their claim. Not to do that is potentially dangerous in legal terms because it invites a counter-claim and further actions in the courts to establish the right of claim.
I hope that the Minister will regard the amendment in the spirit in which it is intended. It would not deny her the prosecution that she seeks, but would establish an order of process that makes sense in relation both to the apparatus of the state and to the rights of the individual, and therefore allows for matters to be carried forward in equal order.